COFFEE BREAK
Saturday, September 26, 2015
PARENTS TALK BACK
Zero-tolerance
system criminalizes
noncriminal behavior
O
ne time in seventh grade, I sought help
from my school’s guidance counselor.
My mom used to pick me up after
school, and I waited in front of the building with
a few other students. One of my peers took this
opportunity daily to inform me that my mother
was a “raghead.” She covered her hair and wore
hijab as an expression of her faith. This wasn’t
always well-tolerated in the suburban Houston
community where I was raised.
My classmate clearly had a problem with it. I
tried ignoring him, but he was
persistent.
I got tired of hearing him
abuse my mother, but I didn’t
dare tell my parents what was
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the counselor, Mr. Clark, and
told him that Jordan kept
calling my mother a raghead.
Aisha
I will never forget his
Sultan
response.
Parents talk back
He said, “Asha” (he could
never pronounce my name
correctly), “there are going to be people in this
world who aren’t going to like you for who you
are. That’s just the way it’s going to be.”
That was the extent of his involvement in the
matter.
Jordan kept calling my mom names
whenever he saw me, and I kept trying to ignore
him.
I don’t suppose my experience was very
different from countless other students who
may have been brown or black or disabled or
fat or a target in any other way. And Mr. Clark
spoke a lot of truth in what he told me. It was an
important lesson, although I didn’t need to be
harassed every day after school to have learned
it.
Times have changed in the intervening
decades, and adults in schools today would take
a dimmer view of a student using slurs to taunt
someone. But in some ways, the environment
seems more pernicious now than it did when
my fellow parents and I were growing up, at the
mercy of our peers.
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on bullying, but they’ve enshrined their own
biases in “no-tolerance policies” and “security
concerns” that disproportionately target minority
and poor students.
Tia Stevens, an assistant professor of
criminology and criminal justice at the
University of South Carolina, said that by age
18, about 18 percent of youth have been arrested
at least once.
For black youth, that goes up to more than a
quarter, she said.
But is that an expression of minorities getting
involved in more suspect behavior? I asked.
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and court appearances, you see disparities
among races,” she said. But if you look at
self-reported data by youth about the frequency
at which they commit certain crimes, the
differences are very slight, she said.
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involvement in the criminal justice system,” she
explained. “Many schools become feeders into
the criminal justice system.”
Her research made me consider the case of
the now-famous freshman from MacArthur
High School who was arrested and suspended
for bringing a homemade clock to school.
Ahmed Mohamed has since withdrawn from
the Irving, Texas school that suspended him.
The backlash to his arrest included invitations to
the biggest companies in Silicon Valley, the top
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House.
The vast majority of the world questioned
whether teachers would have treated a student
of another race or religion the same way with
an item they clearly deemed right away wasn’t
dangerous, and one they admit was never
presented as anything other than a clock.
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encountered Ahmed’s clock was scared of
it — consider that the bomb squad was never
called, nor was the school evacuated or the clock
isolated. And Ahmed never tried to pass it off
as a threat. So did he still need to be arrested
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called?
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across the country.”
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Ahmed, there was a doubling down in Irving
on what was perceived as bigotry. The principal
defended the teachers and himself. The police
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They defended a zero-tolerance system that
criminalizes noncriminal behavior. A system that
allows schools to suspend students for bringing
items they never intended to use as weapons —
a butter knife, a science project.
I wonder how it would have impacted me if
Mr. Clark, my guidance counselor, had listened
to my concerns and said, “But why does your
mother wear that scarf, anyway? Perhaps Jordan
is right.”
Thankfully, that’s not what he did. Even his
non-intervention more than 20 years ago showed
more common sense and compassion than Texas
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Perhaps they should consider how they
would have responded to their own child,
wearing a NASA shirt, bringing a project
to school to impress his teacher. How many
teachers and principals would defend seeing
their own child led away in handcuffs for the
same action?
You don’t need to consult a bullying policy to
know the answer.
You need to consult your conscience.
Ŷ
Aisha Sultan is a St. Louis-based journalist
who studies parenting in the digital age while
trying to keep up with her tech-savvy children.
Find her on Twitter: @AishaS.
East Oregonian
Page 9C
Does living with mom and
dad mean paying rent?
By SOLVEJ SCHOU
Associated Press
Parents whose grown chil-
dren are living at home — and
experts say their numbers are
growing — can face a compli-
cated question: whether to
charge rent, and how much.
Circumstances vary from
household to household.
For Terri Gifford, a self-em-
ployed mom in New Rochelle,
New York, who renovates old
homes, it wasn’t an easy deci-
sion.
Gifford and her husband,
Peter, agreed with their
23-year-old son, Brian, that he’ll
pay them $300 a month in rent.
He has lived in their house for
two years, since he graduated
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have a job, and now he works as
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up for his marriage in November
and taking the Law School
Admission Test in October.
“He’s not making a ridiculous
amount of money,” Gifford said.
“I didn’t really want to charge
him rent, but Brian wanted me
to. He felt better about it. I didn’t
think $300 was a crazy amount
of money. My son wanted to
contribute, and we came up with
an amount where he felt like he
was contributing, but that he
wouldn’t be broke and could
save for his future.”
According to a Pew Research
Center study in July analyzing
U.S. Census Bureau data, millen-
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to 34 in 2015 — are now less
likely to be living independently
of their families and establishing
their own households than they
were during the depths of the
Great Recession, which began
in 2007.
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year, the share of young adults
living in their parents’ homes
has increased from 24 percent
to 26 percent, despite the uptick
in employment and full-time
jobs since 2010, according to
Pew. The study doesn’t take into
account rent, or an increasing
Peter Gifford/Terri Gifford via AP
This Friday, Sept. 18, photo shows Terri Gifford, left, 56, and her son Brian Gifford, 23, at her
and her husband Peter Gifford’s home in New Rochelle, N.Y. Brian Gifford has lived at home
with his parents for the past two years, since graduating college.
number of Generation Xers —
ages 35 to 51 — who have also
moved home with baby boomer
parents.
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who’s away at college and her
husband working long hours in
construction, Gifford, 56, said
the rent Brian pays goes mainly
toward expenses, including
food. She loves to cook, and
Brian, in turn, does a range of
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tank to going shopping and
helping with the dog. He’ll be
moving out after his wedding,
she said.
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having an older child living at
home. I can’t ask as many ques-
tions,” she said. “But he’s a great
kid. He’s very independent, and
very family-oriented. ... I think
Brian is pretty appreciative of
the fact that he saves money, and
I help him out quite a bit.”
On the border between
millennial and Gen X, Raven
Brown, 35, has lived with her
mom in her mom’s three-bed-
room apartment in Manhattan
since 2009. Brown is a PhD
student in public and urban
policy at the New School, and
also works as a researcher. She
wanted to help her mom, who
has chronic health problems, and
she also has huge school loans.
She’s been paying more than
half of the apartment’s $2,200 a
month rent since February.
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seemed like a good amount.
She likes to have me around!”
Brown said, laughing. “Paying
rent feels the same as not paying
rent. It’s helpful to my mom... .
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Rossana Alvarado, 41, a
stay-at-home single mom with
an 11-year-old son, Noah, and
a 17-month-old son, Oliver,
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losing her job, to the four-bed-
room house that her 75-year-old
mom, Consuelo Martinez,
and 71-year-old stepdad, Al
Martinez, own in La Puente,
California. She moved out in
2014, and then came back last
July.
“The negative part is that
it’s embarrassing,” Alvarado
said. “Everyone will tell you
not to be so embarrassed, that it
happens to a lot of people. The
good feeling is my mom felt like
a mom again. I was given this
chance to bond with her, and I’m
happy Noah and my mom have
bonded beyond what I could
ever hope.”
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rent to her parents was set at
$500 a month, she said, and then
it increased to $600, with food
costs included, when she came
back. She receives disability
income monthly.
Her mom and stepdad, a
retired electronics technician,
bumped up the rent because
there was another mouth to feed:
her new baby.
“To me, there aren’t any
complications charging rent.
I love Rossana very much,”
said Al Martinez. “The under-
standing was, ‘I’m helping you.
You’re helping me. I would have
you here for free if I could afford
it.’ I’m retired and don’t have an
income, except social security
and one small pension and my
wife’s social security. Charging
rent is a given.”
OUT OF THE VAULT
Pendleton wowed by ‘blind’ driver in 1935
A
Texan claiming to
be able to see with
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Pendleton audiences in
December 1935 when he
donned an elaborate blindfold
and drove a brand-new
Studebaker through city
streets.
Herbert Cade, a self-
proclaimed “par-optic wizard,”
became world-famous for
his stunts performed while
blindfolded. Cade explained
that he developed his
remarkable powers after a head
injury robbed him of his sight
completely. A brain surgeon
told him that, instead of the
usual three layers of skin,
he had only two, and he was
thus able to “see” through his
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vision eventually was restored
to him, but he discovered that
by fasting for 24 to 36 hours
he could “observe” the world
without his eyes any time he
chose.
After
several days
of anticipation
of Cade’s
daring feats,
Pendleton
residents lined
Main Street
Renee
Struthers to watch a
Out of the vault demonstration
of his powers.
Onlookers
were invited to inspect the
special blindfold, made from
14 layers of black silk, that
was then wrapped around his
head from hairline to chin
and secured tightly above
and below his nose with
tight rubber bands. He then
maneuvered out of a parking
space and traveled down
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plastered to the windshield,
thrilling the crowd by almost
— but not quite — hitting
another car head-on, and then
proceeded to make several
turns and weave between
double-parked cars.
He made several stops
around town, picking himself
out a bottle of milk from a
local dairy truck, pouring
himself coffee at a diner,
discerning different colors with
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a talk on par-optic vision. He
also talked up local businesses
at every stop, serving as a
mobile advertisement for
chiropractic medicine (which
helped restore his eyesight),
Foster Motor Company (who
supplied the Studebaker for
his demonstration), Doherty
Auto Service (where he
demonstrated their brake
testing equipment) and
Troy Laundry (where he
demonstrated laundry
machines). He then retired
to the Hotel Pendleton for a
well-earned rest. Pendletonians
were amazed at his abilities.
More than likely, Herbert
Cade was an accomplished
magician. A search for
par-optic vision on the Internet
found several claims of similar
feats in the 1920s by Cade
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reports of par-optic vision
were from the 1700s, but
scientists didn’t get interested
in studying the alleged
phenomenon until the 20th
century. “Eyeless vision” has
long been used by magicians
and circus entertainers in their
acts, using either trickery
or cheating (peeking down
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studies have been able to
prove that par-optic vision is a
paranormal phenomenon.
Ŷ
Renee Struthers is the
Community Records Editor for
the East Oregonian. See the
complete collection of Out of
the Vault columns at eovault.
blogspot.com
ODDS & ENDS
Dog stands guard for week
protecting trapped friend
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dutifully stood guard for a nearly a week on
Vashon Island to protect another dog that
had fallen in a cistern.
Tillie, a setter mix, only left Phoebe’s
side to try to alert people of her trapped
friend.
Amy Carey of Vashon Island Pet
Protectors says the two were found
Tuesday after they were reported missing
by their owners last week. Vashon Island
Pet Protectors says volunteers looking for
the pair received a call about a reddish dog
being seen on someone’s property a few
times before promptly heading back into
the ravine.
Carey says the Pet Protectors followed
the tip and found Tillie lying beside an old
cistern. Inside rescuers found Phoebe, a
basset hound, on a pile of stones above the
water.
The dogs were cold and hungry but
otherwise unharmed.
No votes cast in small-town
Iowa school board race
MCINTIRE, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa
farmer who was running unopposed for his
local school board failed to earn any votes
— not even his own — but he’ll probably
still get the job.
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to vote for himself between his full-time
maintenance job at a bean processing plant
in Riceville and his chores on his farm
near McIntire, The Des Moines Register
reported.
Richardson was recruited to run by
school staff, and though he said he’s “run
paper thin the way it is,” he agreed because
he has two kids in the district.
Neighbor Jessie Miller said there wasn’t
any key issue to drive her to vote in the
school board race.
“I would’ve voted for him!” she said.
“He’s an awesome guy.”
Riceville is a farming community of
around 500 residents near the Minnesota
border. The school board district
Richardson was running for is also home to
a number of Amish and Mennonite farmers
who typically don’t vote. There are only
122 registered voters who could have voted
for Richardson. Across the entire school
district, only 36 people voted in the Sept. 8
election.
School board president Karl Fox, who
also farms, said the timing of last week’s
vote was unfortunate because it’s a busy
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Fox said farmers have a hard time
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time of year, and many people in the area
have to drive 50 miles or more to get to
work each day.
“It’s hard to get the general public to
remember when to vote for president,” Fox
said.
But Richardson will likely still get the
job on the Riceville School Board because
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the seat he was running for, Fox said.
Prisoner uses bed sheets in
escape, falls when knot slips
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Two
inmates at a Louisville, Kentucky, jail could
have used a course in knot-tying when
authorities say they plotted an escape using
bed sheets.
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roof of a minimum-security building
Monday night and used a rope made of
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Metro Corrections Director Mark Bolton
says 29-year-old Matthew Johnson was
climbing down when a knot on the sheets
came loose, dropping him about 20 feet. He
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Police learned of the escape around 9
p.m., when a hospital worker saw Johnson
climbing down.
The second inmate, 37-year-old
Christopher Cornelius, didn’t risk the climb
and was found on the roof.
Bolton says Johnson was found hiding
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morning. He injured his ankle and back and
remained hospitalized Tuesday.
Both men were in jail on drug charges.