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

gedaliyah@lemmy.worldmod to News@lemmy.world – 627 points –
Prosecutors Refuse to Drop Charges Against Texas 11-Year-Old Put in Solitary Confinement
themessenger.com

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

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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!

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!

Not "extra steps" but "plausible deniability"😉

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what the fuck is going on over there

Brownsville is 94% Hispanic or Latino. This is Texas doing Texas shit.

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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.

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

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.

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...

The DA that’s refusing to drop charges shares the same last name.

This ain't incompetence, this is a power trip. She also called CPS on a mother for questioning her special education needs program

Family of educators inspires women to follow dreams

Excuse me but what are those dreams exactly 🌚

Also, the interior of the photo in the second article looks posh, I wonder if it's a school interior.

Also, the interior of the photo in the second article looks posh, I wonder if it’s a school interior.

I would guess it is Rachel Ayala's dining room.

“So, when my daughters were young, all three of them, I would take them with me to school,” she said. “One of them would answer the phone, the other one would help me deliver textbooks, and the other one would help me do something else. So, they grew up there. … They’re just fantastic.”

Is this kinda... weird? I remember liking to help my dad out once in a while with simple tasks since I had to stay with him at work, but I don't know how I'd feel about doing it every day.

I don't know if I would say "weird". I think it is unusual. Shouldn't they have been going to class? Why was the principal in charge of delivering textbooks? How often do textbooks need to be delivered anyway?

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.

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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.

Obviously, Florida is better.

Florida is better and it's sad Texan liberals can't realize that.

It just goes to show how deluded they are.

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.

The devs don't let you give no stars. A design flaw, imo.

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

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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.

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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

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.

I want to get off Mr Bones wild ride.

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?

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