Eat Your Pudding!

Out north, way out north of the city lies a vast expanse of urban sprawl where people that are afriad of colored people lodge in row after row of McMansions, punctuated by super-mega-churches, and shopping malls. Trafic is hell most days. It used to be tolerable with periods in which there weren't that many Armadas, Expeditions, and Suburbans hurling down busy streets piloted by matrons with a cell phone fused to their ears and one or two children watching TV in the passenger area that are the sizeof a one bedroom apartment.

The schools are run by the Northside Independent School District (NISD), who brag that they are the second wealthiest school system in the county. And when the superindendent is not whining to the press about Robin Hood, you can find him perched in a lofty seat in the state of the art football stadium cheering on his teams.

NISD is the heaviest user of the relatively recent Texas School Penal Code, which allows the district to criminally prosecute things like truancy, vandalism, fighting, etc., and this district more than any other employs a large school police force. Unfortunately, these guys are mostly used to criminalize behaviors by mentally impaired students instead of providing educational interventions and accomodations, like behavior contracts. This saves the district a lot of money and makes folks like the superintendant very happy.

Saturday, one of the campus cops shot and killed a 14 year-old that, "made a move," towards him. Thank God! Another potential MS 13 stone-faced killer was put down by the school's brave law enforcement team.

When I heard this I wondered if it was the same guy who took my 53 pound, 12 year-old, psychotic, anorexic, former client - threw her on the ground during a pushing match with another student, wrenched her arms behind her back, put his knee on her neck, cuffed and arrested her? Or the one who tazed a 10 year-old autistic child?

I'm not sure who this stalwart is. The Express News yesterday I was using as a cat box liner describes the officer as, "devestated," and the community as shocked by all the police cars, emergency vehicles, and heliocopters invading their otherwise quiet neighborhoods.

Not one word about the boy they killed.

I was very upset about this, having had my own encounters with this crew of cowards. I thought about the terrible injustice of the whole thing, but having reflected upon the officer's feelings of devestation it occurred to me why he feels this way.

He was so far off campus when he did this he will lose his job, his career and probably his freedom in a place that will greet a child killer with open arms. The school district will pay many millions of dollars in a wrongful death suit. Even the Federal Department of Justice will investigate the patern of conduct of the district's sanctioned squad of rabid Barney Fifes violating kid's civil rights.

Hurray for zero tolerance Mr. Superintendant. Oh,and in a city where most kids drop out of school, keep those security lights on, folks.