chicagotribune.com — Shaquanda Cotton, the black teenager in the small east Texas town of Paris whose prison sentence of up to 7 years for shoving a teacher's aide sparked nationwide controversy, will be released Saturday morning, prison officials confirmed on Friday.
Mar 31, 2007 View in Crawl 4
vevspeaksApr 1, 2007
Thank GOD. Wonderful.
kevinrosesmomApr 1, 2007
While it may have gotten lost in my spiel, my point is that rampant racism as I see most of the people pointing their fingers to in these comments is not the problem. It's a much more subtle problem than that, and it's engrained deep in the fabric of the society.This incident however definitely shows that even one person of power with racist tendencies can have huge effects over people's lives. If this had not caught people's attention this girl's life would have been ruined; how many others were there that weren't given this kind of attention?Also this happened while I was there, you might find it insightful to the mindset of the school: <a class="user" href="http://www.thewaterglass.net/archives/000225.html">http://www.thewaterglass.net/archives/000225.html</a> (It really was just pure ignorance on their part. There are no Jews in Paris.)
textalonApr 1, 2007
And you believe what you read in the papers as the truth?
diffractionApr 1, 2007
You people do realize that this black girl has been convicted for similar offenses? There are limits to how many times you can pull this kind of crap before they throw you in prison.
havesometeaApr 1, 2007
Ah, good ol Texas justice.../wishes Texas would fall into the gulf...
Closed AccountApr 1, 2007
I don't know about 7 years, but I think she should do some prison time. My wife is a teacher and student-on-teacher violence is a major problem in many areas where we live.
jobenlyApr 1, 2007
She didn't have prior convictions. She apparently did have an attitude problem, however. She was sentenced (in something like a jury trial) to 7 years or until she completed "rehabilitation." I guess part of her rehabilitation was admitting what she did, which she refused to do. If she were less stubborn, she would be out by now. I guess her mother likes to complain about racism every time her daughter is punished. I'm sure her objections would have been taken more seriously if she didn't cry wolf all the time.Also, Ms. Cotton assaulted a school official, which is a serious felony in Texas, probably about as serious as committing arson.All that being said, 7 years is ridiculous. Pedophiles don't get that much in certain cases.I don't know the judge and administrators involved. Maybe they're racist. Or maybe this is a stupid zero tolerance policy thing, like the little kids punished for sexual harassment for kissing girls on the playground.
raid517Apr 1, 2007
I guess you won't be speeding again then?
oracle95Apr 2, 2007
"That same judge gave a white girl one month probation for burning down her families house.The judge is clearly racist and not even the best lawyer could get a proper case through if his/her client is black under that judge."Try the truth: Her lawyer was offered probation if student apologized for incident and parents refused. Other case, probation granted due to accepting a plea bargain. This wasn't racism. This was opportunistic parents looking to make some money in the civil courts later down the road.
spikitoApr 4, 2007
@darkdragon"@Bartboy919:Isn't that the same concept as racism? Making a judgmental decision about someone based on preconceived notions... Yeh, pretty hypocritical..."No, you're thinking of prejudice, racism is thinking one race is superior to another.
kitrusJun 3, 2007
These people are so f**king backwards.I used to live in the South years ago and I'm all for secession. Hell, they actually have a large movement down there in support of it.They won't survive for a month, but hey, that's their f**king problem.They've always been a s**tty little 3rd world country. Really a cancerous appendage in the boundaries of our otherwise civilized nation.