Los Angeles County prosecutors should not pursue charges against three black students at Knight High School in Palmdale who were involved in a scuffle with a white security guard or against a mother who also faces charges related to the incident, activists said Thursday reports the Los Angeles Times.
About 50 demonstrators, including local and national community activists, parents of area high school students, and nearby residents, gathered at the Michael D. Antonovich Antelope Valley Courthouse. Some held up posters bearing statements such as “No Justice, No Peace,” and “Our Children Are Not Criminals.”
“We are saying today . . . that in the spirit of Martin Luther King, we are not backing down,” said Charles Steele, president and chief executive of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a national civil rights group. Steele came from Atlanta, where the group is headquartered, to participate in Thursday’s event.
The demonstration stemmed from a Sept. 18 incident in which Knight student Pleajhai Mervin, 16, dropped pieces of a birthday cake in the school’s lunch area. She allegedly failed to clean up the mess to the satisfaction of security officer Chris Niemeyer. A scuffle ensued in which her mother, LaTrisha Majors, said that Mervin’s wrist was injured. A 14-year-old student, who videotaped the incident, also tangled with the guard after he failed to hand over the camera. The boy’s 16-year-old sister intervened to try and help him.
The students were booked on suspicion of battery and were suspended. Majors said she faced battery charges for allegedly assaulting a school official while at Knight checking on her daughter that day.
For some parents, students and activists, the incident raised concerns about the treatment of black students and racial injustice. For others, including students and school officials, the incident had nothing to do with race and resulted from poor behavior by the three teenagers.
Read it here: Palmdale Students