Wednesday, April 15, 2015

If You Did it, Say You Did it...


One of the problems that I have with the world that we live in is the lack of accountability. Every time something occurs that is contrary to our own expected outcome, it must be someone else’s fault, because it can’t be that of our own. The previously mentioned logic is one of the main reasons why I support any derivative of “stop snitching” campaigns because I would rather be a part of a society where people are noble enough to be accountable and accepting of the punishments related to their actions as opposed to relying on the work of snitches. As I stated in a discussion with a friend earlier this week; if you are afraid of the consequences of your actions, then maybe you should think twice before you do it. Maybe that’s why I don’t have a criminal record, but I digress.
Yesterday, a Fulton County Superior Court Judge sentenced eight of ten former Atlanta public school employees charged with racketeering and other lesser-included offenses. I have seen a variety of postings on Facebook regarding how this is a tirade of justice and another example of the system “holding us down” especially when there have been instances of teachers who were charged with statutory rape that have seen far less jail time.  (I have admitted to being wrong about the racial implications of these statutory rape cases after reading a CBS article detailing about 40 such instances where none of those particular defendants meted a punishment nearly equal to that received by Ethel Anderson.) As I have been known to do in my posting I will describe the parameters that enables me to think the way that I do.
The defendants in this case have been charged with racketeering, a crime loosely described as the activities associated with fraudulently offering a service to solve a problem. So while others may argue that this was mainly teachers who cared about their jobs enough to cheat the system and did nothing more than offer answers and change responses can have several seats. These employees did this as part of a criminal conspiracy in order to keep their jobs as well as financial compensation. The actions committed within this conspiracy show the fault in trying to rectify a problem that has been going on too long; the question of whether public schools and their teachers are failing our children, or whether parents themselves are failing their own offspring. I won’t touch on other analyses where people question test taking skills or the purpose of judging education based upon standardized tests because in life one is readily defined by their ability to perform under pressure as well as various assessments, besides, this rhetoric for education has been in place much before we acknowledged things such as ADHD and test taking deficiencies.
YES, America is in a tremendous need of education reform, but this was not the proper means to accomplish these ends, and if you are unwilling to display any regret, remorse, or responsibility for you actions, in my opinion you deserve all seven of those years in prison, if not more.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ok, good view, but here is where I see things differently. Yes, they committed a crime and should be punished. However the sentencing does not fit the crimes (per say). In a society where the public school system is a systematic machine to continue to miseducate blacks as well as destroy the minds of blacks through psychological games (blacks and whites do not think and reason the same). These teachers were playing a part in a system that was made for them. You wrote that you are a product of your environment. Well lets look at all the things that blacks do due to being products of their environment. Entertainment, Drugs, and Childhood parenting. These three things cannot be denied. These are direct affects of propaganda and a systematic machine that is used on the black community. Now do all follow suit? NO. there are always exceptions to the rules. However, the majority falls to these whims. Therefore, when I look at these teachers attempting to rig a system to win, through a system that is already rigged by those who created it, I find very little fault. Schools are not receiving funding, the threat of closing schools and losing jobs were all parameters in this situation. How far would you go to secure a job...the money that they were going to receive as I understand was only $500.00. SMH....