April, 09 2009, 02:21pm EDT
![ACLU](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012694/origin.png)
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Will Matthews, ACLU national, (212) 549-2582 or 2666; media@aclu.org
Nsombi Lambright, ACLU of Mississippi, (601) 573-3978; nlambright@aclu-ms.org
Incident On School Bus Exemplifies Dangers Of Using Police In Schools
ACLU Files Lawsuit Charging Police And School Officials In Mississippi With Racial Discrimination And Excessive Force Against Schoolchildren
SOUTHAVEN, MS
The
American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Mississippi today filed
a federal civil rights lawsuit charging Southaven, Mississippi police
and DeSoto County school officials with assaulting and racially
discriminating against a group of schoolchildren riding home on a
school bus.
In an egregious example of excessive
and unwarranted use of force by police against students in a school
setting, Southaven, Mississippi Police Sergeant Tomas Aguilar and
Officer Lee Holiday responded to an argument between three students on
the bus by arresting a half-dozen black students, choking and tackling
a black female student and threatening to shoot the 30 students on the
bus between their eyes. The entire incident was captured on videotape
by a surveillance camera on the front of the bus.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District
Court for the Northern District of Mississippi on behalf of the six
students who were arrested and their parents, names as defendants
Aguilar and Holiday, the city of Southaven, Mississippi, the DeSoto
County School District and school district bus drivers Mary Robbins and
Belinda Heyman.
"This case is a vivid and disturbing
illustration of the dangers of relying on police officers to maintain
order in public schools," said Jamie Dycus, an attorney with the ACLU
Racial Justice Program. "No sensible person handles an argument on a
school bus by having armed police officers threaten, arrest and assault
schoolchildren. What happened here was not only unlawful, but
unconscionable, and those responsible must be held to account."
On August 12, 2008, an argument
broke out between three students on a school bus taking DeSoto County
Alternative Center students home after school. Rather than simply
attempting to defuse the situation by separating the students, Robbins,
who was serving as the bus monitor for the drive home, instead called
the police and ordered Heyman, who was driving, to pull the bus over to
the side of the road.
When Holiday and Aguilar arrived on
the scene, Holiday immediately boarded the bus and verbally accosted
the children, threatening to "run all your little asses in." Without
making any determination as to whether any arrests were warranted,
Holiday arrested the two students of color involved in the argument,
telling one girl as he handcuffed her that he was going to take her
"little ass down to juvenile hall." A white student who was equally
involved in the argument was never arrested or charged by police, and
was never subjected to discipline by the school district.
Several minutes later, after Holiday
had pulled the two students he was arresting off the bus and placed
them in the back of his patrol car, Aguilar boarded the bus and
immediately began taunting the students by screaming, "You think this
is funny?" and "Who wants to try me?" Aguilar then arrested three black
students who had done nothing more than smile or laugh.
Aguilar then identified a sixth and
final black student for arrest, despite the fact she had done nothing
against the law. As she was walking off the bus in accordance with
Aguilar's orders, she said she would be calling her mother. Aguilar
responded by grabbing her by the neck, flinging her down into an empty
bus seat and using the weight of his body to subdue her by landing
forcibly on top of her. Aguilar then screamed into her face, "You don't
talk to me like that! You don't talk to me like that! Do you
understand?" Finally, Aguilar jerked the student to her feet,
handcuffed her and took her from the bus.
Aguilar re-boarded the bus several
minutes later and continued yelling at the children remaining on the
bus, at one point screaming with his hand resting on the butt of his
gun, "Y'all think this is funny? Y'all think this is funny? Wait until
you get a bullet between the eyes."
In all, six students - all of them
students of color - were arrested and ultimately charged with minor
offenses like disturbing the peace. Aguilar is currently employed as a
school resource officer at Southaven Middle School.
"The decision by the two school
district officials to involve the police in an incident that involved
nothing more serious than verbal arguing was irresponsible, and the
behavior of the police officers was reprehensible," said Kristy
Bennett, staff attorney with the ACLU of Mississippi. "There was
absolutely no justification for even a single arrest, and there is no
doubt that those who were arrested were singled out because of their
race. The actions of the officers caught on video that day are just one
more example of the problems our youth are dealing with in the school
environment. The abuse of powers rampant in our schools these days is
intolerable."
A copy of the ACLU's complaint is available online at: www.aclu.org/crimjustice/juv/39309lgl20090409.html
Additional information about the ACLU Racial Justice Program is available online at: www.aclu.org/racialjustice/index.html
Additional information about the ACLU of Mississippi is available online at: www.aclu-ms.org
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
(212) 549-2666LATEST NEWS
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"Every day that we continue supplying weapons and munitions to Israel is another day that women are shredded by our bombs and children are murdered with our bullets."
Jul 26, 2024
As President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday, dozens of American healthcare workers who recently volunteered in the Gaza Strip urged the U.S. leaders to do everything in their power to end Israel's assault on the enclave, citing the horrors they witnessed firsthand.
In an open letter addressed to Biden, Harris, and First Lady Jill Biden, 45 physicians, surgeons, and nurses wrote that "we wish you could see the nightmares that plague so many of us since we have returned: dreams of children maimed and mutilated by our weapons, and their inconsolable mothers begging us to save them."
"We wish you could hear the cries and screams our consciences will not let us forget," the letter reads. "We cannot believe that anyone would continue arming the country that is deliberately killing these children after seeing what we have seen."
The healthcare workers called on the Biden administration to "withhold military, economic, and diplomatic support from the state of Israel and to participate in an international arms embargo of both Israel and all Palestinian armed groups until a permanent cease-fire is established, and until good-faith negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict."
"We are not politicians. We do not claim to have all the answers," they continued. "We are simply physicians and nurses who cannot remain silent about what we saw in Gaza. Every day that we continue supplying weapons and munitions to Israel is another day that women are shredded by our bombs and children are murdered with our bullets. President Biden and Vice President Harris, we urge you: End this madness now!"
This is an open letter addressed to @POTUS, @VP , and @FLOTUS signed by 45 American physicians and nurses, about what we saw while working in Gaza. Please feel free to distribute. A PDF can be downloaded from the link and/or QR code on page 1. pic.twitter.com/LHVvmeAFad
— Feroze Sidhwa (@FerozeSidhwa) July 25, 2024
The letter was released as Netanyahu, fresh off his widely condemned address to the U.S. Congress, met separately on Thursday with Biden and Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
In remarks following her meeting with Netanyahu, Harris said that "what has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating," pointing to "the images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third, or fourth time."
"We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies," the vice president added. "We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent."
Harris said she told Netanyahu directly to "get this deal done"—referring to a cease-fire agreement with Hamas—but, as expected, she did not break with the administration on supplying arms to the Israeli military.
While there has been no obvious policy change from the administration now that Harris has taken over for Biden at the top of the Democratic Party's presidential ticket, Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft argued that the vice president "clearly broke with Biden on Israel in terms of rhetoric and tone."
Parsi also contended that there was "a substance shift."
"Biden has disingenuously claimed that Hamas blocked a cease-fire deal," Parsi wrote on social media. "By saying that she urged Netanyahu 'to clinch the deal,' Kamala pointed to the real obstacle."
BREAKING: VP Harris speaks after meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu
Harris calling for an immediate cease-fire deal to free the hostages.
The VP saying she “will not be silent" about the suffering in Gaza, the "devastating" loss of life and the "dire" humanitarian crisis. pic.twitter.com/Fe5QPoOuFh
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 25, 2024
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The healthcare workers expressed the view that—based on available evidence and their experiences—"the death toll from this conflictis many times higher than what is reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health," which currently stands at over 39,100.
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Labor advocates on Thursday decried a ruling by the California Supreme Court upholding a lower court's affirmation of a state ballot measure allowing app-based ride and delivery companies to classify their drivers as independent contractors, limiting their worker rights.
The court's seven justices ruled unanimously in Castellanos v. State of California that Proposition 22, which was approved by 58% of California voters in 2020, complies with the state constitution. Prop 22—which was overturned in 2021 by an Alameda County Superior Court judge in 2021—was upheld in March 2023 by the state's 1st District Court of Appeals.
The business models of app-based companies including DoorDash, Instacart, Lyft, and Uber rely upon minimizing frontline worker compensation by categorizing drivers as independent contractors instead of employees. Independent contractors are not entitled to unemployment insurance, health insurance, or compensation for business expenses.
There are approximately 1.4 million app-based gig workers in California, according to industry estimates.
While DoorDash hailed Thursday's ruling as "not only a victory for Dashers, but also for democracy itself," gig worker advocates condemned the decision.
"Over the last three years, gig workers across California have experienced firsthand that Prop 22 is nothing more than a bait-and-switch meant to enrich global corporations at the expense of the Black, brown, and immigrant workers who power their earnings," plaintiff Hector Castellanos, who drives for Uber and Lyft, said in a statement.
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Prop 22's passage in November 2020 with nearly 59% of the vote was the culmination of what was by far the most expensive ballot measure in California history. App-based companies and their backers outspent labor and progressive groups by more than 10 to 1, with proponents pouring a staggering $204.5 million into the "yes" campaign's coffers against just $19 million for the "no" side.
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Four youth-led groups on Thursday urged Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to "fight for our future" by pursuing a policy agenda the coalition unveiled in a March letter to U.S. President Joe Biden.
It's been less than a week since Biden left the race and endorsed Harris, who is expected to face former Republican Donald Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), in the November election. Since then, she's racked up endorsements from Democratic members of Congress and progressive groups focused on issues including climate, labor, and reproductive rights.
March for Our Lives, which was launched after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, honored Harris with the group's first-ever endorsement on Wednesday, calling her "the right person to stand up for us and fight for the country we deserve."
"To defeat Trump, you must rebuild support and enthusiasm among young voters."
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"You have an urgent and important task. To defeat Trump, you must rebuild support and enthusiasm among young voters," the coalition told Harris on Thursday, noting that she sought the Democratic nomination during the last cycle. "You should build on your 2020 campaign platform where you put forward a strong vision to make the economy work for everyday people and ensure a livable future for us all."
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"Democrats are at a critical crossroads with young people," the coalition wrote to Harris on Thursday. "Polls showed Biden and Trump neck-and-neck among young voters."
ANew York Times/Siena College poll conducted July 22-24 shows Trump leading Harris 48% to 47% among likely voters and 48% to 46% among registered voters—differences that fall within the margin of error.
Forbesnoted Thursday that "Democrats are far more enthusiastic about Harris than they were Biden, the Times/Siena survey found, with nearly 80% of voters who lean Democrat saying they would like Harris to be the nominee, compared to 48% of Democrats who said the same about Biden three weeks ago."
The outlet also pointed to two other polls conducted by Morning Consult and Reuters/Ipsos since Biden dropped out, which both show Harris with a narrow lead over Trump.
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