Huge Brawls between Somali students and Lewiston, Maine high schoolers

Lewiston Sun Journal ^ | September 12, 2002 | Lindsay Tice

[ladylib]

Why did you? Why didn't you tell the authorities to take their teen court (Kangaroo court) and shove it, that this isn't the way it works in the real world?

[FITZ]

just this particular disenfrachised population

There are billions of people in the world in "disenfranchised populations", we can't possibly support them all, why this group? And what does that do for the many more Somalians (or others) who don't get out? Is their country at all improved? By leaving instead of fighting for freedom in your own country, those left behind are just as bad off as they were, maybe worse.

[gueroloco]

Once again, the Somalis in Lewiston are refugees from Georgia's welfare rolls. They weren't being "persecuted,terrorized, and possibly murdered" in Atlanta. They were drawn to Lewiston by more generous welfare benefits. If I'm "mean" for not having compassion for parasites, that's just a shame. Cry me a river. I don't like shameless/prideless thieves. Do you?

[Eternal_Bear]

think it's time for America and Europe to "just say no" to third world immigration.

They can't. It's considered racist to protect one's heritage and culture if your are European. It's okay for Mugabe to "purify" his country though. We have cowards for leaders. This won't stop until America looks like Mogadishu and Calcutta.

[sarasmom]

"I'm confused. If the Somali MUSLIMS are killing and torturing and enslaving Somali Christians, how come it's the Somali MUSLIMS who are refugees? Did I miss a chapter somewhere?"

DUH.Yes you missed the religion of peace rational.That means any Islamic, anywhere is perpetually a victim, untill they accumalte enough of a majority to install sharia law.

Somali Christians would probably assimulate in the USA in a generation or two.Muslims, from anywhere, never will.

[sparkydragon]

I didn't. The couple of cases I got like that my closing argument was "I was unaware of the situation. We are only asking for the minimum." After the first two I got like that I walked out and didn't go back. There wasn't much else I could do really. The only adults involved in Teen Court were the judges, the coordinator and a few volunteers. The rest of us were kids. Part of the problem was that they charge wasn't really "fighting" anyway. It was "disruption of classes." The fun thing about my school district was that they somehow determined that a student could be disrupting classes across the street in another city after school. Being involved in a fight would get you charged. It didn't even matter if you just stood there and took it. If you were there and didn't manage to extricate yourself from the situation you were just as guilty as the person(s) beating you up. Welcome to Zero-Tolerance.

[ladylib]

How could you be disrupting school if you weren't there? This district sounds like it should be hauled into a real court of law, not a kangaroo court that supposedly is going to make parents of students think that the school is actually accomplishing something.

If I were a student and charged with being in the presence of a disruption, I'd get the hell out and never go back.

[Teacher317]

For the most part refugees do not go or stay on welfare; they get jobs and pay taxes and become members of their new communities; and, eventually, American citizens

Perhaps you missed the fact that only 40 of the 400-500 "refugees" were employed?

10% sure doesn't seem like "mostly" to me!

[sparkydragon]

Yeah, well. Like I say, welcome to Zero-Tolerance. For this reason, and many more, I've decided to homeschool. Although, just to set the record straight, Teen Court is not affiliated with the school district. As a teen one can also take care of minor traffic tickets and shoplifting. This particular city allowed an actual ticket to be written for fighting at school, complete with required court appearances. After you showed up at Municipal you were given the option of pleading guilty or no contest to have the offense not go on your record in exchange for community service. Most took the option not to fight it, but they didn't have to.

[ladylib]

Could you plead innocent?

[sparkydragon]

Teen Court was punishment only. A defendant has to first plead guilty or no contest at the municipal level to even get into the program. You could plead innocent at the municipal level, but most of these kids don't think there is any way to fight the charge and their parents insist they plead guilty so they can go to Teen Court and not have the infraction on their record and they don't have to pay the fine. In Teen Court you only have to pay $20 in court costs and do whatever community service is required in your sentence. If you default on your service you have to go back to municipal to pay the fine, but if you go through and finish the service you are excused from the fine.

[ladylib]

What a racket. Just go along with the community service so it doesn't go on your record even if you're innocent. Must give kids a good feeling about the American justice system.

I'd think that after an experience like that I would hate my school so much I'd flat out leave for something else.

[sparkydragon]

I was a senior. I did my time, got my diploma, and got the hell out. Part of the problem is that it was as much the parents pushing the kids as the kids agreeing to it. Would you want to pay Johnny's speeding ticket if you were his mom? Especially if he was underage and driving without your permission.