Quote Originally Posted by Kirkland Laing View Post
More about the US education system :

The Department of Justice on Friday uncovered a so-called “School-to-Prison pipeline” in Mississippi, where teachers and principals are shipping off children into the criminal justice system for infractions as small as a dress code violation. Schools in the city of Meridian, MS, have an established practice of sending students, particularly black and disabled students, to prison for minor disciplinary problems — in clear violation of the Constitution. As ABC reports, that DOJ is claiming that the schools, which protect against “abuse of government authority in legal proceedings and fairness of due process rights,” are violating the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.






Mississippi Schools Sending Kids To Prison For Misbehaving In The Classroom | ThinkProgress




There was a case a year or so ago where a judge was being paid per juvenile by a privately operated prison to send them kids so they could be made to work for a dollar a week in prison to make money for the private prison firm. The judge went to jail but apparently shit like this is happening all over.

EDIT: You can be sent to prison for breaking wind. It's a good job I didn't go to school in Mississippi or I'd have been put on death row.
That type of stuff is in no way limited to the South. In 'enlightened' California, they are in a hurry to get everybody into the system ASAP. One of the young men that I taught to box got hooked up over wearing pants that were too baggy. The school dress code allowed baggy pants, no more than 2 sizes too large. The security guard deemed that his were at least 4 sizes too large, there was an argument, an altercation and the police were called.
You can be arrested at schools in this country for wearing a shirt with a picture of a gun on it, even if it is a United States marine Corp shirt. And the police here recently tasered a 77 year old disabled veteran to death because he got belligerent.
So it is all messed up in so many ways and arguing about whether the Flintstones was a historical documentary or merely a cartoon, whether we are the product of a fickle god or big bangs and monkey love is just a distraction while we get royally screwed.