Kids finally are figuring it out.

According to the Huffington Post, a 13-year-old girl in Rochester, N.Y. was harassed by public school officials after she wrote a paper comparing her school to “modern slavery.” She was forced to leave for another school. The girl is Jada Williams and she wrote in an essay about the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, according to the HP, “making comparisons between a slavemaster discouraging Frederick Douglass from learning to read and modern education struggles in her district.”

She young scholar wrote:

“When I find myself sitting in a crowded classroom where no real instruction is taking place I can say history does repeat itself. I feel like not much has changed. Just different people. Different era. The same old discrimination still resides in the hearts of the white man.” 

What a brave little girl! She gives me hope for America.

The HP continues:

“Williams said she began to feel singled out by teachers after turning the essay in to her English class, earning ‘Ds’ — a change from her previous ‘As.’ She also said the school’s treatment of her changed in general, the Rochester City Newspaper reports.

“‘I love to go to school and I feel like they’re taking that away from me,’ Williams told the paper while fighting back tears.

“Her parents transfered her to School No. 19, but after witnessing several fights in the first few days of her attendance, Williams told the City Newspaper she doesn’t feel comfortable there either.”

What is going on in our schools?

Well, I guess we know: slavery, prejudice, ignorance, violence.

Shut down these prisons and end truancy laws. Give parents back their tax money, so they can have total control over their kids’ educations. Poor children would be given scholarships.

Call it the New Abolitionism: Free the children!

March 8, 2012