Listen to People Who Know

 

Highly recommended reading this morning:

It’s time for Maryland to treat kids as kids, Erika Strauss Chavarria, Guest Commentary, Baltimore Sun

Don’t have a subscription to the Sun? I don’t either. Do you have a library card? Follow the directions here to gain access via HCLS.

Chavarria, known locally as the founder and executive director of Columbia Community Care, makes the case for the Youth Charging Reform Act under consideration in Annapolis. It would eliminate automatic adult charging for children ages 14 and 15 and would also narrow the list of offenses triggering automatic adult charges for youth ages 16 and 17.

Ms. Chavarria’s experience and professional expertise as an educator informs her analysis.

Maryland ranks near the top nationally for its number of children incarcerated in adult facilities, an embarrassment for a so-called progressive state. Black children make up over 80% of the children held. This reflects a historical and fundamental societal disregard for Black children, particularly Black boys, as human beings — a society that does not extend to them the same presumption of childhood or worthiness of grace that is typically afforded to white children. Black children are seen as threats to be neutralized, not as children who make mistakes.

This is not some touchy-feely emotional response but rather one that comes from both first-hand knowledge and is aligned with current research.

I also learned that there is always a context, a backstory or an unmet need when harm occurs. Young people are navigating so many life challenges such as poverty, lack of holistic supports and lack of safe spaces, realities that shape the choices they make. 

Her commentary reminds me yet of  these words by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in. - - Desmond Tutu

It is both disheartening and infuriating that attitudes towards juvenile incarceration are driven so often by racism. 

Black children are seen as threats to be neutralized, not as children who make mistakes.

All you have to do is read the responses on HCPD Facebook posts to see that ugliness played out on a regular basis. It is my opinion that public opinion of the recent police shooting of a young adult resident at Patuxent Commons has been more nuanced and empathetic purely because he was white. 

I am always grateful to witness more empathy but if it is selectively applied? Not so much.

Like it or not, some of our neighbors and coworkers would not envision the same humanity in a young man who was Black. That’s because their world view doesn’t include a concept of non-whites as fully human in the way that they see themselves. The result? Before they’d pull someone out of the river they’d check to see what they looked like first.

Much of our justice system was built and continues the be sustained on assumptions just like that.

The question is: do we want less harm? Do we want to see better and longer lasting results? Then we need to listen to someone who knows.

Maryland has an opportunity this session to align its laws with what research, experience and basic fairness tell us: Children belong in systems designed for children.

As an early childhood educator I often found myself listening to parents who thought that a skill and drill academic curriculum was the best approach to preschool education. Both my education and my classroom experience told me that was not so. I spent years earnestly making the case for developmentally appropriate practices for my students. I didn’t win over every parent. Old attitudes are engrained. 

This is what Ms. Chavarria is doing here - - making the case for developmentally appropriate practice. As a teacher, a parent, and a community member I fully support her argument. I hope you will take the time today to read this piece.

Village Green/Town² Comments