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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA US judge sentenced teenage vandals to read books. This is what happened next
Juvenile crime presents a challenge for judicial systems the world over. Are severe punishments for delinquent behaviour the answer, or should lawmakers and judges focus on more progressive policies to help young people turn their lives around?
Alejandra Rueda, a prosecutor and deputy commonwealth attorney in Loudoun County, Virginia, clearly believes in the latter.
Two years ago, Rueda was faced with the case of five boys aged 16 and 17 who admitted spraying racist graffiti - including swastikas - on a historic 19th-century schoolhouse.
The schoolhouse had special significance because it was the former Ashburn Colored School, which was attended by black children during segregation in Northern Virginia. The local community was outraged by the attack but Rueda wanted to know more about why the teenagers had done it.
None had been in trouble before and she realised they did not fully appreciate the significance of the symbols and language they had used.
Unusual sentence
So she persuaded judge Avelina Jacob to accept her plan based on a list of 35 books, including The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Each young offender was ordered to choose 12 from the list and write a monthly essay about each of their chosen texts.
Some writers were not convinced by the sentence. Speaking to the The New York Times, Marilyn Nelson, whose poem about the murder of a black teenager, A Wreath for Emmett Till, was not included, asked: Will kids punished by being made to read poetry ever read poetry again?
The boys also had to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Museum of American History's exhibition about the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. They then completed a final essay about what they had learned.
Full reading list at link
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/this-is-what-happened-when-a-us-judge-sentenced-teenage-vandals-to-read-books/
Me.
(35,454 posts)zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)All of them were fiction. There are a few very good nonfiction books on the topic. Ralph Abernathy's book comes to mind.
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)murielm99
(30,741 posts)is biography. So is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, although it qualifies as science, too.
A Hope in the Unseen is a novelized biography.
This is a wonderful reading list.
I would add Weasel, by Cynthia DeFelice. It is a shocking YA book. When I brought it home for my oldest daughter, I told her that under no circumstances was she to leave it around for her little sister to pick up. I knew my kids, and I knew my seven year old was not ready for that book.
mainer
(12,022 posts)Kids might be more drawn in by the fictional characters and their ordeals against an historical background, than by the history itself.
Me.
(35,454 posts)Rabrrrrrr
(58,349 posts)Clash City Rocker
(3,396 posts)Reading it might help you to understand some Trump supporters better, assuming thats something you would want to do.
onethatcares
(16,168 posts)I thoroughly believe that if you hear something, are made to read it, then write it down, your thoughts will be deeper than you can imagine.
I say, "Way to go, Judge". It was a better approach than tossing them in juvy.
Dem_4_Life
(1,765 posts)What an awesome Judge!
Mme. Defarge
(8,031 posts)I needed that.
Last edited Thu May 2, 2019, 04:23 PM - Edit history (1)
Amen!
Thanks for posting this, Bayard.
That was a great reading list, btw.
FakeNoose
(32,639 posts)Those kids were lucky they got an understanding, proactive judge. It's the ultimate "teaching moment" that can hopefully change five lives.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)it would have the same effect.
I also believed that reading books like this would make all the difference.
erronis
(15,258 posts)I hope these kids are made to do their penance (reading/reviewing) outside of being coerced by other teens and other influencers.
Each child should be able to reach their understanding of the acts and the facts on their own terms.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Why give into the minority ignorant racists? They have always been there yet we keep progressing in spite of it.
mopinko
(70,107 posts)went to an all girl catholic school. sometimes those nuns get uppity.
besides reading 'black like me' and 'a doll's house' they actually taught a class in comparative religion. i'm sure the nuns would be appalled to hear me say, as i have ever since, that it made me realize that god was a human invention.
or maybe not. maybe thoughtful followers was the plan. seems quaint now.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Its really about learning that diversity is probably the most important human experience possible. The effect will always open your mind to the quality of differences and the sharing of cultural and human similarities.
I can truthfully say that the best thing that ever happened to me is growing up in Mexico as a US Citizen which gave me both cultures as a daily experience. Being bilingual in languages that are distinctly different in emotional and spiritual expression is like living in two distinct worlds at the same time. I wish everyone could feel that because its profoundly rich.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)for this kid.
I'd seen a bit of poverty in Oakland and San Francisco prior to that point, but not a great deal. And of course in the Bay Area I'd grown up with a fair amount of ethnic diversity, but nothing before could've prepared me for life in the most densely populated city in the world, not to mention one of it's most cosmopolitan (even if it's overwhelmingly full of Chinese folks).
At first the culture shock was horrible ... by the time I left and went back 'home', I really didn't want to leave ... primarily the fact that my bio dad and 2 baby (half) brothers were there was the only reason I wasn't totally bummed out to return to life in the US.
Things/people I saw, did and met ... completely changed my outlook on life, for life. No question in my mind.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)I was totally at home traveling around in the city by myself on the buses, even as a kid, sometimes in the company of chickens and other livestock. It was quite normal to me. I thought nothing of it. When I became a teenager sometimes I would get some anti-American treatment but all I had to do was say something in Spanish and the angry looks would vanish. My experiences were pretty much as a mixture of looking American but sounding and in many ways acting like a native. It was interesting.
Rambling Man
(249 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)crippling that can be, especially for races that arent white. Its devastating.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,857 posts)And a very good way to teach the kids what they did wrong. Far, far better than a jail sentence or community service.
There ought to be more creative sentencing like this, especially with first offenders.
marble falls
(57,093 posts)Mopar151
(9,983 posts)The reports/essays/reviews have to be a part - in fact the right "Stealth teacher"/mentor could be a major breakthrough for many who lean to the stupid/unthinking/casually destructive.
iluvtennis
(19,858 posts)catbyte
(34,390 posts)I noticed there were no books by/about Native Americans and our post-invasion experiences.
Black Hills, White Justice, and Custer Died For Your Sins are other good ones.