Our Views: Crime a real school issue

The case of Quinton Adams underscores the urgency of promoting student safety in public school campuses in Baton Rouge.

Adams, a convicted rapist, was arrested on Feb. 16 for allegedly committing another rape. He is accused of raping a 14-year-old girl on the campus of Tara High School. Adams, who was a Tara student at the time, is awaiting trial as an adult on a count of forcible rape. The family of the 14-year-old girl is suing the East Baton Rouge Parish school system in connection with the alleged rape. School system officials have said that they knew almost nothing about Adams’ prior criminal record while he was at Tara. The Advocate recently documented the Adams case as part of a larger story about juvenile offenders on public school campuses — one of a continuing series of articles about violent crime in the Baton Rouge area.

Adams’ guilt or innocence in connection with his most-recent charges should be considered an open question until his case is heard in court. But the case has already raised some important questions about campus safety. What are school officials allowed to know about students’ prior criminal record? What steps should school officials take to obtain that information? And if a student does have a criminal past, should that student be treated any differently on campus?

Wayne Messina, director of security for the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, said that school leaders usually have a hard time getting details about crimes that students committed while under the age of 17.

State law often shields juveniles from public scrutiny when they commit crimes. If this information isn’t made public, as the theory goes, then offenders have a better chance at making a clean start before they become adults. But Mark Dumaine, chief administrative officer for the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office, said that several state laws allow schools to learn more about juvenile offenders, particularly those who have committed violent crimes. East Baton Rouge Parish school system officials have met with East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III and the parish’s two juvenile court judges to learn how information about such cases can be better shared. We hope those discussions prove fruitful.

The Adams case also raises larger public policy questions. Where should juvenile offenders be educated? Since 2003, the juvenile justice system has shifted away from using juvenile jails for young offenders in favor of less-restrictive, community-based programs.

But under Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration, state budget cuts have dramatically reduced funding for those programs.

“If you don’t have any juvenile facilities to put (juvenile offenders) in, then it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand where these kids are going back to,” Messina said. “They’re going back to our schools.”

That’s an ironic result from Jindal, who has cast himself as a law-and-order governor.

Comments

1) Comment by TheTardis - 01/07/2012

I thought Valley Park was the school where criminals were sent. Why wasn't this guy sent there? I think they should make Lee High into a school for the disruptive students. Schools should employ the three strikes rule. Lee could be for students not bad enough to go to Valley Park, but who are disrupting the teachers' ability to teach.

2) Comment by Chucky - 01/07/2012

I believe it is time to overhaul the Juvenal justice system. Those convicted of serous crime but still under the age of 17 should have there records made public for the safety of the community. Repeat offenders should have records made public. Those with antisocial behavior should not be main streamed into the general population of schools, the Juvenal court judges must have control over them. As we say “times have changed” and the juveniles of today and the crimes committed are not the same in type, number or severity as in the 50's 60's and even 70's. The public needs more information and oversight of the Juvenal system.

3) Comment by [e-mail] - 01/07/2012

School safety is not the issue; you've completely missed the lesson that should have been learned. A criminal has no business being educated in the public school system at all and there should be no alternate schools provided for them. When a fool decides to attack society or refuses to conform then the onus is on that person and his welfare or well being is no longer the concern of the rest of us.

4) Comment by bourbon-soda - 30/06/2012

It is indeed ultimately "our" justice system. We made it what it is and deserve it.

5) Comment by tradewinns - 30/06/2012

instead of blaming the schools or the teachers blame our FAILED JUSTICE SYSTEM. this is just another in the tidal wave of terrible decisions made by our failed justice system. rapist should be physically castrated on conviction of the first crime. then rape will cease to be a problem for that criminal.

6) Comment by spqr - 30/06/2012

I hate to tell you fine folks, but so many kids are school disputions with fighting, drugs and gang culture as their core the police have gone to schools and tased students even they could not control. That's where we are. Too many students are too old to be in their current grade level. They fear NOTHING and many have experienced jail. There is no education reform without giving schools the right to expel all disruputive students immediately without fear of frivolous lawsuits, race factors, No Child Left Behind stupidity, or having the student's grade recorded as a zero because of said expulsion that counts against the school's statewide score.

7) Comment by nimby? - 30/06/2012

bourbon-soda , Attila ; what happened to L T I ?

8) Comment by Attila - 30/06/2012

Great idea bourbon-soda.

9) Comment by bourbon-soda - 30/06/2012

They could call the charter school for criminals "jail," great for enforcement of compulsory attendance.

10) Comment by Whatnow - 30/06/2012

@lovemykids, These kids wouldn't pass the criteria. Most of the Christian schools that I researched have grade and behavior criteria. They would be sent back to the public schools if they fail either.

11) Comment by bourbon-soda - 30/06/2012

I read once - possibly written by John Shelton Reed - that one of the advantages of a career in sociology is that you can do anything you want and call it research. I did some amateur sociological research on why people with children who were mediocre or worse students paid to send them to private schools. The response was, there are not so many overt criminals. Surely some sociologist has written a treatise on this as a causative factor in flight from the public schools or high-crime public school districts, or secession from said districts. So why is this case the editorialists' first clue?

12) Comment by lovemykids - 30/06/2012

Maybe we can have a charter school for juveniles with a criminal record or maybe these juveniles can get vouchers form nice christian schools. This is a tragedy.

13) Comment by bourbon-soda - 30/06/2012

I agree with teacherguy that teachers are being scapegoated for society's devolution but the idea that people other than parents are responsible for childrearing is a big part of the devolution and the public schools themselves are a monument to that idea. The question, "is educating away from the general population denying them the right to have the best education possible," has unexamined premises that should be look at. Does educating with the gen-pop (appropriate prison slang) imply the "best education possible?" Is there a right to an education for people who don't want it? Is it logically possible to give everyone a "best" anything?

14) Comment by ABayouBoy - 30/06/2012

Punishment exists for the sole purpose of deterring crime and for teaching those responsible for them that society will not tolerate such actions. Adams, as a convicted rapist, has shown no remorse, and now as an adult, has committed a 2nd. offense. This time against a 14 yr. old girl. Make the punishment fit the crime and many would be perps would think twice. Adams, in my opinion, needs to be "dis-membered". Or, better yet, taken out back and - well, let the girls family take care of him.

15) Comment by teacherguy - 29/06/2012

So, I am a public school teacher and can vouch that students are on middle and high school campuses and because they are juvenile offenders...the principal is the only person on campus that knows this information. The only way teachers learn of their criminal background is if there is a parent conference and the parole officer shows up...or if the student forwards this information to us. For the most part, in my 18 years of teaching...these students do try to "start over"...if not, they are quickly cut from the herd for misbehavior...but then they are put back on the streets in most cases. Where is the best place for these students? Is educating them away from the general population denying them the right to have the best education possible? This incident is just one exaggerated example of what our public schools are dealing with...and focus has been so much on scape-goating teachers, and how to punish them...without addressing the harder issues of the environment the students come from.