Jena 6 Case Causes House Judiciary Committee to Examine School Violence

According to a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Jena 6 controversy has caused the House Judiciary Committee to look into violence in United States Schools. The rights group hopes that the committee will also look into the "school to prison pipeline" a mechanism that has been accused of funneling children of color from the school system to the prison system.

The Jena 6 controversy centers around six African American teenagers formerly attending school in Louisiana. The students were involved in a beating of a white student motivated by what many have referred to as racial tension that prior to the attack had flooded the school. The racial tension began when some African-American students began sitting underneath a tree known to be a favorite hang out spot for white students at the school. Nooses were hung in the branches of the tree, and racial tensions flared.

The students involved in the assault upon a white student have been dubbed the Jena 6. These students helped propel racism back into the national spotlight after they were charged in the assault. The general public consensus appears to be that the students were treated much more harshly than the white students involved in the racially motivated fighting. Several notable musicians have spoken out in support of the Jena 6 students including David Bowie, Mos Def, and Ice Cube.

ACLU Legislative Counsel Jesselyn McCurdy had this to say regarding the judiciary committee's decision to look into school violence in response to the Jena 6 controversy: "Jena was a wake-up call: Racism in America is alive and well. Our country is still fighting for civil rights, and the battlefield isn't just in the courtroom and on the streets - unfortunately the battlefield is on the playgrounds and in the classrooms, too."

McCurdy commented further that: "Children of color in our country are being groomed for prison rather than college. High schools are not way stations until students graduate to prison, and children aren't inmates waiting for a sentence. Schools are places to learn, and all students deserve that opportunity. Jena is a disgrace for the nation, but we hope Congress will seize it as an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and eliminate racism in the justice system at its roots."

The rights group feels that the Jena 6 case exemplifies racism in America and is a particularly poignant example of the "school to prison pipeline". The group feels that the Judiciary Committee's hearing is a step in the right direction to correcting this injustice.