Black Girl Punished For Wearing Brown Leggings: the Policing Of Our Daughters’ Bodies In School

 

http://mybrownbaby.com/2012/09/black-girl-punished-for-wearing-brown-leggings-the-policing-of-our-daughters-bodies-in-school/

by Denene@MyBrownBaby

An 11-year-old black honors student in California was booted out of class for wearing… wait for it… leggings. Not just any old leggings, mind you. But—gasp!—dark brown leggings that, in one teacher assistant’s eyes, made the tween look so much like a hottentot that she needed to have a seat in the principal’s office for being “racy.”

Mind you, Daja, a student at Mount Gleason Middle School, is about fiftyleven shades lighter than the chocolate leggings the teacher’s assistant pegged “skin-colored,” and about as big as a twig; nothing about her outfit or the way it looks on her appears inappropriate. Still, the teacher’s assistant insisted the leggings made the little girl look like she had on no pants—a punishable offense in her book.

Now, Daja’s mom, Yolanda Tunstill, is mulling a discrimination suit against the Los Angeles Unified School District, arguing that her daughter was singled out because of her skin color. Tunstill points out that her daughter wears leggings to school “all the time” and that school officials never had a problem with her wearing them “until she wore the brown ones, and then it became a problem.” Deja’s mom told KTLA news, “I felt discriminated against. Shocked… like, I mean, are you serious?”

Police Officer Sprays Arkansas Students With Pepper Spray to Clear the Halls

http://mybrownbaby.com/2012/04/police-officer-sprays-arkansas-students-with-pepper-spray-to-clear-the-halls/

By Denene Millner

Students at an Arkansas junior high school this week were clearing the hall too slowly in the opinion of a police officer assigned to the school, so he did something mind-numbingly dumb: he pulled out his pepper spray and squirted it into the air. The result? Pandemonium, as screaming, gagging and vomiting students ran down the halls and out of the school. Three students were rushed to the emergency room and more than a dozen others were picked up by their parents because of difficulty breathing.

Clearly this officer is not the brightest porch light on the block, but the entire episode brings up something we’ve written about on MyBrownBaby on more than one occasion: Police officers and kids just do not go together. It’s simply asking for way more trouble than it’s worth.

A Middle Schooler Strip Searched in Front of Classmates? This Needs to Stop

http://mybrownbaby.com/2012/02/a-middle-schooler-strip-searched-in-front-of-classmates-this-needs-to-stop/

By NICK CHILES

The family of a middle school student in Georgia has filed a lawsuit against the school district because administrators, suspecting that the 7^th grader was in possession of marijuana, forced the youngster to strip down to his underwear in front of classmates. The boy had no drugs—but he was wearing Superman underwear. In the year since the traumatic incident occurred, the boy has acquired a new nickname throughout the school. You guessed it—Superman. His mother said his interest and commitment to school has suffered a severe blow.

Too Short Is Too Outrageous in Advising Little Boys to Commit Sexual Assault

http://mybrownbaby.com/2012/02/in-an-outrageous-advise-video-too-short-advises-middle-school-boys-to-commit-sexual-assault/

By NICK CHILES

Outrage doesn’t begin to describe my reaction to the “advice” column by Too Short on the website of the hip hop magazine XXL. In the ridiculous video feature, the aging rapper basically advises middle school boys to commit sexual assault to hasten their relationships with their female schoolmates. The most astounding thing about this column, beyond the fact that somebody thought it was a good idea to select the notoriously raunchy rapper to give advice to anybody, was that the editors of XXL actually put it on their website and sent it out into the world.

As the father of a middle school girl (and a second one who is just two years away), I was so enraged and disgusted when I read the text of his XXL video that I wanted to run to their corporate offices and create a huge bonfire of XXL magazines in the lobby. I know if some little boy ever put a hand on my daughter and they found evidence of this video anywhere within sniffing distance of his dumb behind, XXL would need a building full of attorneys to fight all the lawsuits I would send their way.

{On The Parenting Post} Grown Too Soon

http://mybrownbaby.com/2011/08/what-to-do-when-pop-culture-tries-to-make-young-girls-grow-up-too-fas/

By Denene Millner

When I was a teenager, my mother said I shouldn’t ever wear make-up because it would ruin my skin, and, like a good daughter, I listened to her, because that’s what you did when you were Bettye’s child. I don’t think I wore much more than lip gloss until I was well into my sophomore year in college, and even then, I used it sparingly. And even now, as a mom with two brown girl pies of my own, I pretty much operate under the same philosophy: A bare face is the best face. The only time I slather on my collection of Bobbi Brown, M.A.C and CoverGirl Queen Collection goodies is when I’m doing TV (rare) or going out with the hubs (bordering on never).