The Black Scream and the American Dream - Philly's 7th Ward

The Black Scream and the American Dream - Philly's 7th Ward

THE BLACK SCREAM AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

Black people have been screaming forever yet in higher pitches since 2020. Given technological advances, we get to show you our lived experience of pain on camera. You get to see on live footage the murder of our people by some bad apples in blue uniforms. We get to share our own personalized trauma on social media platforms and maybe for once receive empathy. Our scream has been amplified and we recognize digital platforms as our co-authoring friend.

One thing for sure, you’d have to live under a rock to honestly say, “I haven’t heard a Black person scream.” Let me be more explicit, all races demonstrate pain which includes violence, abuse, and depression that can result in detrimental impacts on health. Hell, we even cry out for help in our spiritual places of worship. The unfortunate silent elephant in the room is that our Black scream has become normalized.

But it is not O.K. It took a global pandemic for our communities to freely speak about the urgent need to heal from our pain. Many individuals across our melanin diaspora are advocating to find ways to heal and tend to self- CONTINUE READING: The Black Scream and the American Dream - Philly's 7th Ward

School Violence In U.S. Thwarted When Others Speak Up: Report | Across America, US Patch

School Violence In U.S. Thwarted When Others Speak Up: Report | Across America, US Patch

School Violence In U.S. Thwarted When Others Speak Up: Report

Early intervention not only stopped dozens of school shootings. It also kept 100 kids from becoming killers.

Averting Targeted School Violence (pdf)

The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States (271K .pdf)

Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and Creating Safe School Climates (185K .pdf)

Additional Materials
Making Schools Safer: Quick Reference Guide (404K .pdf)

Evaluating Risk for Targeted Violence in Schools (80K .pdf)

ACROSS AMERICA — Students and parents who saw something amiss about another student's behavior spoke up and likely saved lives. the U.S. Secret Service said in a new report on school violence released this week.

In its report titled "Averting Targeted School Violence," the Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center studied 67 thwarted school violence plots, as well as the motives and backgrounds of 100 students who intended to carry out the plots.

Seeing early warning signs of a student who might carry out a mass attack and getting that person help is critical to stopping school violence, the center found through its research.

Sixty-eight shootings have taken place in U.S. schools since the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999, according to the most recent data available through the K-12 School Shooting Database.

While school shootings are still rare compared to daily gun violence, data shows they are happening more often. In fact, from 2015 to 2018, the United States averaged one school shooting every 77 days, according to the database.

To create its report, the National Threat Assessment Center looked at cases at K-12 schools in 33 states between 2008-2017. A majority of the targeted schools (84 percent) were high schools and one-third were in suburban communities.

While the cases examined came from public records, the locations of the thwarted violence attempts were intentionally anonymized in the report, a Secret Service spokeswoman told Patch.

Students who plotted school violence attacks also shared similar history and behaviors as those who actually carried out attacks, such as a history of school discipline, contact with law enforcement, and drug and alcohol use, research found.

Many experienced bullying or had mental health issues like depression or suicidal thoughts. A majority also came from a home where parents CONTINUE READING: School Violence In U.S. Thwarted When Others Speak Up: Report | Across America, US Patch

In the wake of man bringing live bombs, zip gun to Sac elementary school, major leap announced in campus protection tech • Sacramento News & Review

In the wake of man bringing live bombs, zip gun to Sac elementary school, major leap announced in campus protection tech • Sacramento News & Review

In the wake of man bringing live bombs, zip gun to Sac elementary school, major leap announced in campus protection tech

Authorities are being tight-lipped about what might have motivated Gustavo Aguilar, the 57-year-old man arrested last week for allegedly bringing two improvised, working bombs and a loaded homemade gun to Ethel Baker Elementary School in South Sacramento. Meanwhile, on the global front, a Canadian company confirmed that it’s racing ahead with a novel technology designed to stop such threats to school campuses.   

The investigation into Aguilar began shortly after 8 a.m. on March 2, after a program manager working at Ethel Baker noticed two suspicious devices resting on a sidewalk near one of the entrances.

Children were due to arrive at the school that morning. Even with COVID-19 restrictions, Ethel Baker has been one of the Sacramento City Unified School District’s learning hubs, a place where community groups partner with school staff to offer distance-learning support to students. This generally involves providing computer access to roughly 40 kids at a time, with an adult supervising as they log-in for classes.  

According to SCUSD Chief Communications Officer Tara Gallegos, the students hadn’t arrived on campus when the first menacing devices were uncovered.

“Our principal was able to get ahold of the students quickly, and made sure they knew to stay home,” Gallegos told SN&R. “Because this happened so early, most of the staff hadn’t arrived yet, either.”

Sacramento Sheriff’s personnel converged on Laurine Way. An Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team soon approached the devices. Sheriff’s Sergeant Rod Grassmann said that one was a 2.5-inch diameter steel pipe, sealed at both ends, with an improvised fuse on it. It was packed with metal shrapnel, clay putty, firecrackers and gasoline.

The other device was a “zip gun” made from a steel pipe. It had a spring-loaded cap that could fire a 12-gauge shotgun round. The zip gun was loaded.

No one was harmed as the Sheriff’s team neutralized both devices.

Another live pipe bomb was found on the campus on March 19.

Five days later, Sheriff’s detectives arrested Aguilar.  He was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on CONTINUE READING: In the wake of man bringing live bombs, zip gun to Sac elementary school, major leap announced in campus protection tech • Sacramento News & Review

Teacher Tom: It's the Thinking

Teacher Tom: It's the Thinking

It's the Thinking

Nearly twenty years ago, there was a two-year-old in my class named Melissa who would regularly hit the other kids. Not when she was mad or when she wanted something they had, but only when they cried. The moment she heard a classmate cry, she made a beeline for them, then proceeded to methodically pummel them about the head and shoulders, which of course made things worse. She always seemed confused when we pulled her away from her victims.

My first concern was that this was somehow learned behavior, that this was how she, her siblings, or someone else in her life were treated when they became emotional. I imagined a putative parental figure, even as her actual parents struck me as kind and loving. I dug around there, talking with her mother and a few of their family friends. If there was anything to my theory, it was very well hidden. I studied the girl's behavior, looking for clues that might indicate abuse or trauma, but saw an otherwise robust, cheerful, curious little girl. 

We ruled out the possible influence of violence she had seen CONTINUE READING:  Teacher Tom: It's the Thinking

Sarah Lahm: The Hijacking of Police Reform by Wealthy Opportunists Resembles the Harm Done to Public Schools | Ed Politics

Sarah Lahm: The Hijacking of Police Reform by Wealthy Opportunists Resembles the Harm Done to Public Schools | Ed Politics

SARAH LAHM: THE HIJACKING OF POLICE REFORM BY WEALTHY OPPORTUNISTS RESEMBLES THE HARM DONE TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The Minneapolis City Council voted to disband the city’s police department on June 26, a little more than a month after George Floyd died after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. Chauvin, along with three other officers who were there when Floyd was killed, has since been fired from the force and is now awaiting trial for Floyd’s death.

The city council vote does not automatically mean Minneapolis will no longer have a police department, of course. After a series of steps, the public will be asked to vote in November on an amendment regarding whether or not this course of action is the right one.

n June, a competing vision of police reform had been on the table in Minneapolis. Just as community-led initiatives were gaining traction, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced in June that his department would be using “real-time data” to overhaul its operations.

The work would be driven not by local grassroots groups, but instead by a Chicago-based company called Benchmark Analytics. Chief Arradondo announced on June 10 that the Minneapolis Police Department “would contract with Benchmark Analytics to identify problematic behavior early,” according to local NBC affiliate KARE 11.

Red flags flew up instantly, however, when this arrangement was made public.

For one thing, Benchmark Analytics is a private firm that promises to deliver an “all-in-one solution to advance police force CONTINUE READING: Sarah Lahm: The Hijacking of Police Reform by Wealthy Opportunists Resembles the Harm Done to Public Schools | Ed Politics

Paul Horton: Violence Against Blacks During Reconstruction | Diane Ravitch's blog

Paul Horton: Violence Against Blacks During Reconstruction | Diane Ravitch's blog

Paul Horton: Violence Against Blacks During Reconstruction

In response to the murder of George Floyd, as well as the murders of other African Americans in recent months, the media, historians, teachers, and others are reviewing the long history of vicious racism in this country and calling for structural changes. The challenge of our time is to look deeply into our institutions and not let this moment of reckoning with our racist attitudes and institutions fade away without meaningful change. No American should have to fear for their life and safety because of the color of their skin.

Paul Horton, acted her and historian at the University of Chicago Lab School (a unionized private school), shared this essay about her history:

Just a teacher-historian sharing history who spent hundreds of hours as a graduate student researching the KKK Reports, the set of published congressional investigations into the KKK and affiliated organizations during Reconstruction.

Yesterday, Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative published a report that estimates that over 2,000 blacks were murdered during Reconstruction for political activities associated with organizing for the party of Lincoln in the American South from 1865-1877. The Democratic Party in the South at this time and later CONTINUE READING: Paul Horton: Violence Against Blacks During Reconstruction | Diane Ravitch's blog