“Children get in fights all the time. Children make mistakes,” Brandi Grayson said to a small crowd in front of the Dane County Courthouse this morning. “The difference in Madison, Wisconsin, is that if you are black and make a mistake, that mistake lives with you forever. This is a perfect example of how our children are railroaded into the prison system. It’s a perfect example of white supremacy. It’s a perfect example of institutionalized racism and until we can address racism within our institutions and our systems, including public education and schools, then these kinds of things will continue to happen.”
A group of concerned Black Mothers, Brandi Grayson, and the Focused Interruption Coalition held a press conference in front of the Dane County Courthouse today demanding charges be dropped against the honor roll, AVID/TOPS student from East High School who is facing criminal charges following a school altercation. They also called for the removal of Educational Resource Officers (EROs) in MMSD and throughout Dane County.
“Ultimately, we are here today in support of your youth,” said Caliph Muab-El. “As you all know, Madison East had a conflict between multiple students. As a result of that, the district attorney and the officers charged a young lady with felony child abuse for a minor school infraction. Today, we’re coming out and saying that this excessive. It’s unnecessary and uncalled for.
“We’re calling on officials today to have a little bit of humility … have a little bit of humanity and not allow our youth to be constantly victimized by a system that is definitely oppressive and is definitely biased,” he added. “The system is failing our children.”
Fourteen-year-old Ajani Carr, the next speaker at the event, was one of those children who was saddened by the arrest of his fellow student. “She is an honor roll student, an amazing basketball player, great at school … she shouldn’t be charged with a felony. She’s a young person – 17 – who’s not old to vote but can be charged with a felony for a minor altercation at school,” Carr said. “I’m not here to bash the system, the government, or anything like that. I just want to give you all a side of a situation that you might not normally see.
“A felony can really ruin a person’s life. I believe this type of thing should be handled inside of the school. Not handled at the level where a person has to be in jail and charged with a felony,” he added. “This is not something that is acceptable. It’s not something that should even be thought of.”
Theresa Sanders, a member of a group of concerned black mothers, said this incident comes down to a schoolyard fight. “This kind of incident should be handled by the school. In all of history of dealing with children at school, usually these kinds of issues are handled by school officials,” she said. “You do not call the police when kids are fighting at school. If that was the case, probably everybody here today would have been arrested and had a felony on their record a long time ago. Black Mothers are here to support this family and the other family that was involved in this fight. We should not be arresting our children because of a fight. Girls fight. Boys fight. They are still children.”
“This is another example of the lack of community. There are not a lot of people out here today,” Grayson said. “We have a 17-year-old who is being railroaded into the prison system. She’s a 17-year-old girl who is an AVID student, an honor roll student, a perfect example of what we tell our children to strive to become. She’s the perfect example of a black girl who is not protected by the system or the school. She’s the perfect example of where we are lacking in Madison, Wisconsin.
“When we have 84 percent of our black children being arrested at school, there’s a problem,” she adds. (In fact, it’s 84 percent of arrests at Madison schools are black, not 84 percent of black students.) “When we have children being arrested because they will not sit down, that is a problem. If you can’t handle basic conflicts at school when it comes to black and brown children, we have a problem. And that problem is white supremacy racism. It’s a problem we don’t like to talk about because it makes people comfortable.”
Grayson demanded that the charges against the youth be immediately dropped by District Attorney Ismael Ozanne.
“We need for Ismael to drop the charges. He has failed us multiple times. And when I say ‘us’ I mean the black community and black bodies. Our bodies are being destroyed,” Grayson said. “Our spirits are being destroyed. It’s starts in elementary school, moves to middle school and by the time our kids reach high school our kids are defeated. We are asking you, Ismael, to drop the charges immediately and we’re asking that the contract with the Madison Police Department be void!”
Jerome Dillard, member of the Focused Interruption Coalition, said that he was here today to stand in solidarity with the young lady who was arrested at East High school and with the community. “We came out to appeal to our district attorney that charges should be dropped,” Dillard told the crowd. “We have a student here who’s never had any trouble. She’s been a stellar student in our school system. One incident should not have ended in arrest and facing charges. Even if the felonies are dropped, there are still misdemeanors. These things go on CCAP at 17 years old.”
Dillard said that what he’s seeing is a continuation of the school-to-prison pipeline. “I’ve dealt personally with several young men who have been trapped in our system at 17 years old and dealing with community corrections,” he said. “Our children deserve a chance. It’s a black eye to our county and our city that we lead the nation in racial disparities in our criminal justice system. I feel like this is part of that reason.”
Muab-El read off a list of demands that they were making including:
· The District Attorney drop all charges against the honor roll, AVID/TOPS student who was involved in a school altercation at East High School.
· MMSD provide them with all demographic data relative to the arrests and charges against ALL MMSD elementary, middle, and high school students by EROs.
· MMSD provide them with the names of ALL 17-year-olds attending MMSD high schools that have been charged as adults by the Educational Resource Officers (EROs) for the past three years.
A reporter in the crowd asked if it was possible if the student would get the charges dropped as part of restorative justice program.
“We don’t want restorative justice. It’s not an option. Restorative justice means that she’s guilty of something. She has to plead guilty. But CCAP doesn’t care about that. That will blemish her for the rest of her life,” Muab-El says. “It don’t come down off CCAP. That’s another issue we have with charging juveniles as adults … making them appear old enough to vie for themselves when they can’t even vote.”
This story has been updated to note an incorrectly cited statistic.
