Sometime in the next 30 days, the Madison School Board will come to a decision if Madison-area middle school student, Dereian Brown, will be expelled or not. This is how Madison creates its Tamir Rices.
Cherokee Heights Middle School student Dereian Brown is anything but a curious case; he’s a young black male that is being put up for expulsion because of archaic school district policies. Officials say Dereian Brown had a BB gun at school Oct. 30. The school district brought up Tamir Rice as a reason why Dereian should be expelled, because of potential “life or death” consequences. The irony here is that if they expel him, he would be how Madison’s creates Tamir Rices, through death by 1,000 cuts.
Do we really need to continue to re-visit the statistics that Madison, in some ways, is arguably the worst place to live if you are black? That we hold some of the largest racial disparities in the nation, particularly when it comes to the education gap between white and black youth? This is how Madison creates its Tamir Rices.
No, we do not need any more data; we need a change in our city. Dereian Brown already served a 15-day suspension and has support of school administrators, teachers and community members. He doesn’t need to be further punished because of a mistake that he allegedly made by bringing a toy gun to school. He needs to be embraced, not pushed into a dark direction because that is how Madison creates its Tamir Rices.
The MMSD has a policy that even if a student brings a toy weapon to school, they automatically face expulsion. This makes any restorative justice initiatives moot. This also means that the school district will send more students out of school, students that truly need to stay in school. This is how Madison creates its Tamir Rices.
Students that are expelled have a much higher chance of increasing their police contact months after they’re expelled. They will face a harder time if they come back to school. They face increased chances of juvenile detention. And you add all that up, they face much higher chances of experiencing our (in)justice system as adults. This is how Madison creates its Tamir Rices.
This policy also brings us into contact one of the many touching points of implicit bias. We know that people, particularly white people, see black people as innately more dangerous, especially black males. Because of this, black students that are put up for expulsion under such a policy will be more likely seen as a danger to the students around them and expelled. Where a white student will more likely be seen as making a childish mistake and not be expelled. This is how Madison creates its Tamir Rices.
By pushing students out of school and by taking away opportunities to grow and learn as punishment. This is how Madison creates its Tamir Rices. By removing students that need to be in school, as all students should, in saying that this isn’t a “good kid” or “bad kid” issue. Because students are the sum of who they are at 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, or 17 years old.
Seventeen years old is how old I was when I was suspended for 15 days for bringing a controlled substance to school; one that many people overdose on. I was far from a “good kid.” I may have gotten good grades, but I missed a lot of classes and had behavior problems. But, the school administrators, teachers, and even our police liaison saw a troubled kid with loads of potential. They saw that the worst thing that could happen to me would be to expel me.
I was able to just serve a 15-day suspension, and I was able to uphold those expectations. I went on to go to school at Purdue University, where I wasn’t perfect, but I graduated in five years. I then served on the 2008 Obama campaign and continued to work with youth with UW-Madison’s PEOPLE Program. I also help co-found the Young Gifted and Black coalition. I had the chance to grow and learn because I was seen as something more than my youthful mistakes.
Dereian isn’t even 13 yet and his future is already up in the air. His road to a full education, which was already up in the air as our school district already fails our black students, is even more in peril. When we fail our students now we also fail them in their future. This is paternalistic racism and implicit bias at some of its worst.
Instead of seeing who this child is, a smart capable child that made a mistake … they see him as a danger to himself and others. So the obvious choice is to beat him into submission (sarcasm), as that’s what this city and this nation does to its black citizens. This is how Madison creates its Tamir Rices.
So call upon MMSD Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham and our school board to not expel Dereian Brown. Call them and e-mail them every day this week. Sign the change.org petition. Let them know that we are better than this.
