A school district and local prosecutors in Texas are refusing to drop charges against an 11-year-old who was held in solitary confinement.

A school district and local prosecutors in Texas are refusing to drop charges against an 11-year-old who was held in solitary confinement.

Officers detained the boy and placed him in solitary confinement for three days at the Darrell B. Hester Juvenile Detention Center. Cameron County prosecutors argued for charges of “terroristic threat.”

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.

Cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9591073

    • flawedFraction@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      11 months ago

      That’s a great article. This part towards the end really stood out:

      Based on an analysis of district juvenile justice referral data we received from Brownsville ISD, the district police made 3,102 student arrests over a period of roughly two and half years from May 2021 to November 2023. That’s 135 arrests per month in the school year. Fifty-nine percent of those arrests were for felony changes.

      Of those arrests, 3.5 percent were for elementary school-aged children. From the beginning of the prior school year to November 3 this year, there have been 76 arrests of students 10 to 11 years old. Charges for terroristic threats accounted for 20 percent of those arrests. Most, 66 percent, were felony charges. There were no charges for aggravated assault for this age group.

      I was curious so I looked up how large the district is and they have almost 38,000 students. . Such a large district puts those numbers into perspective a little bit but that still seems unbelievable.

      • jaybone@lemmy.worldEnglish
        25·
        11 months ago

        3000/38000 that’s almost 8%

        Is it normal for 8% of a population to be arrested over a 2.5 year time period? Even in say China or Nazi Germany?

        • Aatube@kbin.social
          8·
          11 months ago

          Definitely not in China… for better or worse their juvenile students usually never break criminal law

          Unless you’re talking about the Uyghurs, which I have the impression that only adults are interned but I currently can’t trust any sources about the situation either