Who Is Shaquanda Cotton?

Who is Shaquanda Cotton, what is all the uproar about this young lady from Paris, Texas, and why hasn’t Capitol Annex heard about this sooner?

I was checking some national blogs that I rarely get around to reading this afternoon, and ran across a post at a blog by one-time Texan Shark Fu at Angry Black Bitch that linked to a story in the Paris News.

I couldn’t figure out why ABB was linking to this story, so I checked it out and found a very interesting story that seems to have been underreported lately by the MSM in Texas.

It turns out that Shaquanda Cotton is a teen from Paris, Texas who was sentenced to a sentence of indeterminate length (as long as seven years) in the Texas Youth Commission for pushing a teacher’s aide at a school in Paris.

An initial article in the Chicago Tribune on March 12 brought the story national attention:

There are the Paris public schools, which are under investigation by the U.S. Education Department after repeated complaints that administrators discipline black students more frequently, and more harshly, than white students.

And then there is the case that most troubles Cherry and leaders of the Texas NAACP, involving a 14-year-old black freshman, Shaquanda Cotton, who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun.

The youth had no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor–a 58-year-old teacher’s aide–was not seriously injured. But Shaquanda was tried in March 2006 in the town’s juvenile court, convicted of “assault on a public servant” and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until she turns 21.

Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family’s house, to probation.

“All Shaquanda did was grab somebody and she will be in jail for 5 or 6 years?” said Gary Bledsoe, an Austin attorney who is president of the state NAACP branch. “It’s like they are sending a signal to black folks in Paris that you stay in your place in this community, in the shadows, intimidated.”

And, according to the Paris News, the story caused quite an uproar, including a march by the New Black Panther Party:

Chanting “No justice! No peace! and “Go back to hell, devil!” about 100 New Black Panther Party and Millions More Movement members and some Paris residents marched on Paris Independent School District Administration building Monday afternoon.

Carrying picket signs, protesters demanded Superintendent Paul Trull resign.

Cries of “Paul Trull, come out boy!” and “Robert High, tell them why you’re such a sell-out Negro” echoed through the usually quiet neighborhood around the district’s administration building at Northeast 20th and Clarksville streets.

The Trib followed up on that story this morning, noting Cotton is one of the teens likely looking at an early release from TYC in the wake of the scandal:

Among the leading candidates for early release is Shaquanda Cotton, a black teenage girl from the small east Texas town of Paris, who was sent to prison for up to 7 years for shoving a hall monitor at her high school while other young white offenders convicted of more serious crimes received probation in the town’s courts.

Shaquanda’s story was the subject of a March 12 Tribune article that triggered hundreds of blog articles and thousands of message board postings and led to a nationwide letter-writing campaign to the Texas governor decrying perceived racial discrimination in her case.

I can’t believe this hasn’t received more press in Texas. Perhaps I missed it, but I don’t think so. Cotton herself even has a blog (which is, I am sure, maintained by someone for her “on the outside” of TYC), though it hasn’t been updated in a while.

All of the uproar in Paris has even caused the judge that heard Cotton’s case, Chuck Superville, to speak out:

“I call on the media and others involved to go to the public record to get the facts of the case before they rush to judgment,” Superville said Saturday.

Superville said after a three-day jury trial, which found that Cotton committed an act of juvenile delinquency — namely assault causing bodily injury against a public servant — he determined the best place for her would be Texas Youth Commission.

“If Shaquanda had been white, the outcome would have been the same,” Superville said. “My decision was based on facts and law and I am confident this was the correct decision based on the facts I was presented.”

The March 2006 case is on appeal with the Texarkana Court of Appeals. The court conducted a 10-hour hearing in August 2006 to consider a request that Cotton be released on bond.

The judge said Cotton could have been released at that time but would not speculate why the appellate court did not grant the bond. The judge said he presented the facts of the case and that attorneys for both the prosecution and for Cotton presented arguments.

Superville said he gave the 14-year old an indeterminate sentence up to seven years — her 21st birthday.

“Once I set the indeterminate sentence, Shaquanda holds the key to her jail cell,” Superville said. “It is up to the child and TYC.”

That latter part may be a bit problematic. Clearly, the TYC hasn’t been doing the best job in this department, considering they’ve added time to kids’ sentences for possessing an extra pair of socks.

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