In 2000, what began with a few students playfully throwing peanuts at one another on a school bus ended in five Black male high school students being arrested for felony assault, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. When one of the peanuts accidentally hit the white female bus driver, the bus driver immediately pulled over to call the police, who diverted the bus to the courthouse where the students were questioned.
The Sheriff commented to one newspaper, “[T]his time it was peanuts, but if we don’t get a handle on it, the next time it could be bodies.”
No satire, in fact, could outdo real life in Mississippi today. Here is a comprehensive report on what they risibly call an “education system” in them-there pawrts. A sample:
In 2010, one Black mother in Holmes County reported opening her door one morning to a police officer on her doorstep. Over his shoulder, she could see her frightened five-year-old son locked in the back seat. Her child’s crime: violating the dress code. Her son’s school required solid black shoes, and despite her best efforts to cover them with a black marker, red and white symbols were still visible on her son’s black shoes. When she followed up with her son’s principal, he justified his actions by telling her that her son needed to be “taught a lesson.” (p.3)
Comparisons between schools and prisons are nothing new, of course: every schoolchild has probably articulated that sentiment on occasion. But in Mississippi, they appear to have become two wings of one institution. What on earth are the kids learning there?
