Sequoia article misses the point

Good morning, Marlene

Did the article miss the point? Well, if a high school student was purposefully mistreated by authorities, then yes... the community should be outraged. I'm not sure if your background includes experience working with clients like the student described in the article, but if it does, you've seen how episodes like the incident at M-A is usually not a fair assessment of all the circumstances surrounding such episodes. This incident was not a lone snapshot... it's part of a collection of images. What we as a community should be concerned with is what will future images look like. We all want success for the students mentioned in the article.

If the lawsuit plays out in a courtroom, we will get a better understanding of what happened at M-A last year. The article listed five police officers, but it does not provide details of their involvement. If five officers were needed to handle the situation at the bus stop, that could be an indication that things escalated quickly. The article suggests that the officers used "excessive force" but does not tell us what that means. We also do not know what "confidential" school records were shared with the police. I'm guessing the police were not interested in standardized test scores, but information concerning past misconduct... if there was any... could be part of the officers' investigation into a matter they were called by the school to evaluate. There might be an element of "in loco parentis" in this story. We don't know from reading the article.

It's curious. There is no mention of body cameras in either the reporter's narrative or the attorneys bringing the lawsuit. This incident is a good reason why police officers should record the audio and video of events like the detention of a student at a bus stop. If there is video, it would also shed light on the role the other student played in the incident. That's important, too.

The attorney's suggestion this incident is an example of a student being pushed through the school to prison pipeline is somewhat misleading. It appears the student may have been detained then transported to the police station for processing for a misdemeanor offense. That confidential information will be forwarded to the DA's office for review. Let's not put a student into the pipeline for a low-level legal issue.

There is one thing clear in the article. This student appears to need services he is not receiving at this time. We should be outraged if he does not get them.