1y ago

Prosecutors Refuse to Drop Charges Against Texas 11-Year-Old Put in Solitary Confinement

themessenger.com Prosecutors Refuse to Drop Charges Against Texas 11-Year-Old Put in Solitary Confinement

A school district and local prosecutors in Texas are refusing to drop charges against an 11-year-old who was held in solitary confinement.

Timothy Murray lost his father earlier this year and had been asking his principal for counseling when she called in the police

THE POLICE PROBLEM @lemmy.world

Doug Holland @lemmy.world

1y ago

Prosecutors refuse to drop charges against Texas 11-year-old put in solitary confinement

themessenger.com /news/prosecutors-refuse-drop-charges-against-texas-boy-solitary-confinement-brownsville-school-district

129 21

Not The Onion @lemmy.world

roastedDeflator @kbin.social

1y ago

Prosecutors Refuse to Drop Charges Against Texas 11-Year-Old Put in Solitary Confinement

themessenger.com /news/prosecutors-refuse-drop-charges-against-texas-boy-solitary-confinement-brownsville-school-district

434 64

171 comments

Data from Brownsville ISD seen by The Observer showed its officers made 3,102 student arrests between May 2021 and Nov. 2023. Nearly 60% of those were on felony charges and 76 of those kids were in elementary school.
what the fuck is going on over there
- High-speed school-to-prison pipeline. Because inmates=free labour and prisons are for-profit. Gotta get 'em kidz institutionalized as early as possible!
  
  It's the conservative way. They hold these traditions sacred.
  
  This was what they found in other schools too. One specific location ( I can't remember where) the dads formed a group to a) keep kids peaceful and b) because they were being sent to jail for schoolyard bs. It was a largely black school. If you want to look it up with the sad details my brain is providing. Sry
  
  Yep. Also noticed that the principal that called the police and the DA refusing to drop the case have the same last name. Garza isn't that rare of a last name, but it's not exactly "Smith", either. I'd bet good money those fuckers are related to each other.
  
  Wait, that's just slavery with extra steps!
  
  Why ban slavery when we can evolve it?!?
- what the fuck is going on over there
  Brownsville is 94% Hispanic or Latino. This is Texas doing Texas shit.
- Just republican shit.
- Murica! Murica! Murica!
- So much for that "stay in school" speech...
- What % of those kids were assholes?
  
  asshole doesn't mean criminal
  
  If being an asshole was illegal Texas would be a prison.
  
  wtf is wrong with you?
  
  Were you never an asshole as a kid? It's part of growing up. We work to make them better, but arresting them does nothing worthwhile.
  
  Kids are kids. Asshole parents raise asshole adults.
  
  76 arrests of elementary students? Does it really matter? I have a hard time believing any arrest is appropriate for that age
  
  Shouldn't matter. You don't throw kids in jail just because they are assholes.
  
  You're making up 110% of them

Obviously the cops and prosecutors are real shitheads here, but I think some blame goes to a piece of shit principal who woukd call the police on an 11 year old.
- The DA and Principal are likely related, same last name. I'd bet this isn't the only incident between these two, with the principal setting up the targets and the DA knocking them down.
- She also apparently called CPS on a different mother for questioning her special education program.
- None of them should have any kind of power over others. If we ever manage to fix this system despite the dipshits that are trying to break it further, whether system comes next should have a specific focus on preventing people like this from getting power or keeping it if they manage to hide themselves until after they've gained power.
- And also the stupid law that allows charges against children. Our system of kids under 14 not being "strafmündig" (criminally responsible) is often criticized and has other issues sometimes but at least it prevents shit like this

I've tried to understand what the charges are, as far as I could tell it seems it's somehow related to an anti terrorist law and caused by the kid pulling someone's hair and gesturing to cut paper with scissors, which was interpreted as gesturing to cut a finger.
The article seems to try very hard to obfuscate the actual reason (I'm guessing for legal reasons?)
In any case, this seems insane, seems like excessive overreaction from everyone involved.
- its because there is no actual reason for it. they are still trying to document one
  texas, you fuckin cowards.
- The whole thing is weird.
  His ordeal began five days later. In the late morning of September 8, Timothy was pulled out of music class and ushered into a room where he found Garza, Assistant Principal Michelle Saucedo, a district police officer, and a counselor sent from the district’s central administrative office. He was told another student had just reported that Timothy said he was planning to kill the principal. Rincon said she was called and rushed to the school but was not allowed to be in the room while Timothy was being questioned.
  “When the police officer had his body cam off, they were yelling and telling me, ‘We’re gonna go to the full extent. We’re gonna put you in a lockbox,’” Timothy said. “Then, when the body cam was finally on, they were so nice.”
  Timothy told me he had explained to the school and district officials that the accusations were not true, that the only conversation he had that morning was with two other boys about wearing his sweater over his uniform.
  Rincon has received only a school conduct referral form, on which administrators wrote that “Timothy told another student that his hair was messy because he was up all night to come up with a plan to kill Mrs. Garza (principal).” Underneath, Timothy wrote: “No I was not up all night I just forgot [to comb my hair].”
  On the bottom of the form, administrators had written: “OSS [out-of-school suspension] 3 days 9/11-9/13.”
  https://www.texasobserver.org/why-was-this-11-year-old-honor-roll-student-put-in-solitary/
  
  Not the point of this article/topic but why is law enforcement required to wear body cameras but they can turn them off whenever they want!? That's asking for abuse! Unless they're using the restroom (and even then I'd lean towards an independent reviewer deleting footage, if anyone). These are public servants on-the-clock! If there's no enforcement, there's no consequences to purposely deactivating the taxpayer-funded camera they're supposed to be operating under...
  
  So it started with a kid who made up a really tall tale, told it to an adult in the form of completely unsubstantiated hearsay, which the admins for some mysterious reason chose to belief. Those admins must be either stupid or malicious.
  I'm leaning towards maliciousness, jealousy and spite as the most likely reasons for why this is happening.
- I thought the same thing. Here's the archived Texas Observer article on it, which is what this article's source seems to be.
  Apparently the principal heard from another student that this kid was "making threats" against her. Sounds pretty thin to me.
- Unless the kid brained someone with a tee ball trophy, I categorize this penalty in the "extreme" category.
- Texas, bruh.

Chief Wiggum : No Jury in the World is going to convict a baby....Maybe Texas
- Is this a real line?
  
  Lol yes: https://youtu.be/FiI4Blte0ic?si=6nD9DtbzqBjJMY7F
  
  Yes, Season 7 episode 1

Data from Brownsville ISD seen by The Observer showed its officers made 3,102 student arrests between May 2021 and Nov. 2023. Nearly 60% of those were on felony charges and 76 of those kids were in elementary school.
What the everliving fuck is wrong with these people?
- It’s Texas. They’ve NEVER been afraid of letting everyone know just how big of pieces of shit they are.
  
  Everything’s bigger in Texas.
- Its Texas lol. Our government prides itself on having no empathy or compassion whatsoever.
  See the list of executed juvenile offenders before the federal government made it illegal:
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_for_juveniles_in_the_United_States
  Or the time the state was in contempt of court for years because they didn't want to revise the excessively cruel CPS system.
- That's just absolutely fucking insane.

Despite being accused of ignoring Texas laws which require parental involvement before such interventions, Cameron County District Attorney Rene Garza told a hearing Wednesday that his office was gathering further evidence against Murray, rather than deciding to drop the charges.
If the law protects you, it will be ignored and the people who ignore it will face no consequences for their lawlessness. The law is for hurting you, and only laws that hurt you count.
- i cant stop laughing at the idea of the grown ass adults asking a 10 year old boy if be wanted to hurt himself whilenin handcuffs so they put him in a turtle suit and solitary his ass

What kind of incompetent principal reacts to trouble making elementary schoolers by calling the cops on them?
- This article:
  https://www.texasobserver.org/why-was-this-11-year-old-honor-roll-student-put-in-solitary/
  Should shed some light on the subject. Particularly:
  Garza comes from a Brownsville education legacy. Her mother, Rachel Medina Ayala, was one of Brownsville Independent School District’s first female superintendents. Garza’s two sisters are also principals in the district.
  So, in answer to your question:
  What kind of incompetent principal reacts to trouble making elementary schoolers by calling the cops on them?
  A nepotism hire with a vindictive streak.
  
  Jesus Christ, I didn't even know dynastic public school administrators was a thing...
- This ain't incompetence, this is a power trip. She also called CPS on a mother for questioning her special education needs program
  
  I agree.
  Some background on Myrta Garza:
  https://myrgv.com/featured/2023/07/02/brownsville-isd-selects-new-principals-administrators/
  https://myrgv.com/life/inspire/2021/03/31/leading-by-example-family-of-educators-inspires-women-to-follow-dreams/
- The same that calls CPS on parents
  Other parents have also complained to the outlet about the principal. One mother said that, after a meeting with Garza about her 5-year-old in which her own mom questioned the school's special education plan for the boy, Garza called Child Protective Services on her.
- Conservative ones. Conservatives should never be in a position of authority over others, especially children!

Garbage state.
- And the liberals in the cities think texas is better than just about every other red state.
  
  False. I'm a Liberal in a blue city and I think this state blows.
  Most of us do, in fact.
  
  Because you know them all right?
  
  Obviously, Florida is better.

This is the same detention center that had an employee who embezzled 1.2 million dollars worth of fajitas over the course of 9 years. He only got caught because he took the day off to go to a doctor's appointment and a delivery of 800lbs of skirt steak showed up that no one else was expecting.
What I'm saying here is the Darrell B. Hester Juvenile Detention Center isn't known for the fastidious oversight of its employees.
- I'm not even mad. I'm impressed, that's amazing.
  
  The Fajita Bandit has become a bit of a local folk hero, partly because of how ridiculous the story is, and partly because (in retrospect) fajitas were more reasonably priced in Cameron County than they had any right to be.
- …. Wtf is some one gonna do with 800 pounds of fajita?
  
  Sell it to local restaurants for less than the county paid for it.

Well thats just an entire chain of people that are so completely divorced from reality, common sense, and compassion, that humanity would only benefit from them being skimmed out of the gene pool.
- People think Texas is the lone star state. The reality is that Texas is the one Star review state.
  
  I think you are being very generous with that one star, lol.
  
  I mean, we have a lot of climate/agricultural diversity across the state as well as three cool, very progressive, large cities within a few hours of each other.. I'd say it's at least 2.5 stars

Why are Texans so fragile
- everything’s bigger in Texas!!1!

One mother said that, after a meeting with Garza about her 5-year-old in which her own mom questioned the school's special education plan for the boy, Garza called Child Protective Services on her.
Garza's mom questioned it? Or the 5yr old's? Or the mother of the 5yr old's? Who is "her" referencing?
- 5-year-old, mom, and grandma showed up to the meeting with the principal. Grandma questioned the school's special education plan. Principal called CPS on mom.
- You may want to reconsider your own reading comprehension.
  One mother said that, after a meeting... in which her own mom questioned the school's... [plans], Garza called Child Protective Services on her.
  Who is her and her own mom?
  It is not specified at all.
  You also completely failed to address the question at hand. OP asked who the "her" in "her own mom" is referring to. Your modified sentence doesn't even acknowledge the "her" in question.

- Howdy Arabia is a police state hellscape. I cant wait for my parents to retire and move back up north so i never have to go back to that hellhole ever again.

Is there anything the Texas government ISN’T afraid of?
- More guns. Apparently.
  
  As long as the right people have them

This seems very strange, like it took place in a parallel universe or something.
- America is a bit like a parallel universe
  
  More like a whole parallel multiverse with how each state has its own set of quirks

Americans have truly lost their minds...
- Only about half of us, but yeah.
- Please send help.

I want to get off Mr Bones wild ride.

if you actually want to protect kids, this is the shit you form a posse to go protect right? for all the people worried about children this is where you would show up at the court and/or prison and demand their release?
- Dude this is in Uvalde. They already let a couple of fat cops prevent them from saving their kids.

This principle sounds like such utter shit. The world would be much better off without her.

Giving more reasons to defund them
- Easy there. Finding reason to defund public schools is Greg Abbot's wet dream. It's the first step toward his goal of state vouchers to religious schools.
  Also consider that Brownsville is a border town of mostly Hispanic residents. What better sacrificial lamb to demonstrate the evils of public schools?
  
  Think defund, and reallocation of resources.

- Could you be so kind to log off and stop commenting?

171 comments

everything’s bigger in Texas!!1!