She hates it when that happens

Not to worry! Mayor Rhodes-Conway has your back!

A colloquy culled from social media:

Ali Muldrow, May 31 at 11:02 AM:

Nikki Giovanni once wrote “I really hope no white person ever has cause to write about me.” 

It is only now that understand the depth of what she meant.

Linda Jameson: Well, just remember, not all us white folk got the same memo. Keep going!

Michelle Kruse: I’m white. I once wrote about you. But it was good stuff because you have a lot of good to share! But I hear you. 😥

Shawna Kollath: I almost hate to ask, but what was written?!

David Blaska:

ISTHMUS.COM: “A rotten year”

Jessica Mcgauley-Jacobson:  Ali’s response in this article sounds spot on to me. One issue I see is that after years and years of facing racism and discrimination at school turning things around and establishing an environment of trust and learning in high school is going to take more resources than what one teacher to a class of 30 some kids can possibly do. Teachers are stressed because as a society we do not support children, we barely fund schools, and then we look to them to come up with all the solutions and do a great job on a shoe string budget. The kids themselves are not the problem we need to always remember that.

Betty Harris Custer: There are people you just have to look past because you already have a vision far beyond them and their pettiness.

Satya Rhodes-Conway: Sending you strength, sister ❤️

Rashmi Phillips: I have so many thoughts and opinions about this article…and none of them are good. Sending you love and support.

David Blaska:

Now you know, Ali (my friend), what it feels like. And it’s not just “white people.”

Ali Muldrow: May 30 at 8:33 PM ·

“What I am talking about is a slow death, a death of the spirit, a death that is built on racism and intended to reduce, humiliate, and destroy people of color.” Bettina Love thank you for defending our children in acknowledging their suffering and paving the way for us to stand up for each other. I love you.

EDWEEK.ORG

“How Schools Are ‘Spirit Murdering’ Black and Brown Students; How many “isolated” incidents of racism in schools will it take before we admit that they aren’t isolated?” asks Bettina L. Love.

“In February of 2019, a positive behavior support coach who was employed by the district in Madison, Wis., allegedly physically assaulted and ripped the hair out of the head of an 11-year-old Black girl. In the same school district, several teachers and substitutes have been fired or resigned earlier this academic year after reports they used racial slurs in the classroom. In the neighboring school district of Middleton, Wis., a school bus driver was fired after the district confirmed he had slapped a Black child. All these incidents in Wisconsin happened within months of each other.”

David Blaska:

Bettina Love recycles a discredited (by district attorney Ozanne) narrative of the positive behavior coach’s “attack” on a child. If anything, it was the other way around.

Ali Muldrow:

Has the child been convicted of a crime? Did I miss the part where this 11-year-old girl was found guilty of assaulting an adult man? Or are you just saying it’s OK to assume she is to blame without any substantial evidence but when an adult man is accused of hurting a little girl we should give him the benefit of the doubt?

David Blaska:

Oh, Ali! That’s not even the question. She beat a teacher about the face, broke his glasses and knocked them to the floor. She’s still in school, the teacher is out of a job.

“Benefit of the doubt?” A full police inquiry, took statements from the classroom teacher and the kid’s fellow students. Forwarded the investigation to Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who concluded that the positive behavior coach was innocent of any wrongdoing.

By that point, of course, you, Jennifer Cheatham, and then-school board president Mary Burke had already thrown him under the school bus. Which is why you are in trouble with the teachers whose union, inexorably but still inexplicably, endorsed you. They deserve you and you, them.

David Blaska:

So I ask you, is it permissible for students to hit their teachers in the Madison Metropolitan School District?

Ali Muldrow:

This is like old times. Innocent until proven guilty extends to the student as well. The presumption of guilt is far less appropriate for an 11-year-old child than an adult professional. The DA asserted that a crime had not taken place he did not however assert that no wrongdoing or misconduct in the workplace had taken place and he’s not out of a job he resigned. … Please provide proof that the student did any of the things you are claiming.

David Blaska:

Did you even read the police report? The classroom teacher, the kids in the classroom, and the special education teacher all gave eye-witness statements to the police. The girl beat “Mr. Rob” about the face until it was reddened, breaking and knocking his glasses to the floor.

The misbehaving student didn’t miss a day of school; the positive behavior coach who followed the rules (and presented with Supt. Cheatham at a Washington conference on restorative justice) is out of a job.

Why have you not read the police report???

https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/documents/19-56447-redacted-03052019.pdf

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Social justice warriors cannot allow scrupulous interviews with eye witnesses disturb their preferred narratives. And why is that mean old white man accusing the 11-year-old darlin’ of misbehaving? (Eleven-year-old darlin’: “I’m not F-XXX-ing going anywhere, you white, bald-headed mother-XXXXer.” )

And to think, the Madison police union endorsed Satya Rhodes-Conway and Sheriff Dave Mahoney and the teachers union endorsed our Ali Muldrow! (Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.)