9:36 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · children|Education|New York City · 7 Comments
9 Feb 2010
My first daughter was barely walking when the New York City Department of Education put the New York City Police Department in charge of school safety. I protested the measure, supporting the high school students and parents who knew that putting the already racist NYPD in charge of public school safety would lead to racial profiling on top of racial tracking that was already happening.
Now my older daughter is 12 years old, and the school where many of her friends go, the school that is her zoned junior high school (full disclosure- she attends a private school), the school my sister graduated from, had a 12 year old arrested and handcuffed for doodling on her desk.
Alexa Gonzalez no longer faces a suspension for scribbling with a lime green marker, but principal Marilyn Grant told her mother, Moraima Camacho, that agency policy dictated that she calls the cops.
“[She said] that it wasn’t their fault that it was something they had to do,” Camacho said of her meeting with Grant at Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills. “She doesn’t consider it doodling.”
A message left for Grant was not returned.
After Alexa scribbled her name, the date and a smiley face on her desk during a Spanish class on Monday, her teacher reported her to an assistant principal, who placed a call to cops, city officials said.
The cops arrested Alexa, escorting her out of the school with her hands behind her back in metal handcuffs, Camacho said.
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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