Jackson At It Again

Some men get wiser with age, others, it seems, only drift farther and farther from the neighborhood of good sense. Jesse Jackson, who has been relatively quiet since last spring's sojourn with Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, is back in the headlines, this time crusading on behalf of high-school hoodlums.

This past September 17, a bleachers-clearing brawl erupted at the MacArthur-Eisenhower football game in central Illinois. Seven Decatur high school students participated in the mlee and were consequently expelled from school. Their participation in the rioting is not in dispute--in fact, it was captured on video tape--and if it were not for one entirely incidental detail, there just punishment would probably have been carried out without protest. Unfortunately for Decatur school officials, the students they expelled happen to be black.

Enter Jesse Jackson. Jackson, from whatever perch he surveys potential opportunities for race-baiting, took notice of this clear-cut disciplinary case and decided that it was once again time to rattle his rusting saber. He descended upon Decatur, and along with his Rainbow/PUSH coalition organized protests and filed a lawsuit on behalf of the expelled students. Jackson intimated at school board racism and seized on the board's "zero-tolerance" policy regarding violence, claiming that it violated the students' constitutional rights.

In the immediate aftermath of Jackson's intervention, school officials sought to avoid the cost of a lengthy battle by crafting a compromise. They reduced the term of the students' expulsion to one year, and further, they arranged for the students to attend alternative schools during that time. Perhaps not surprisingly, this was not enough to satisfy the outraged Jackson.

Jackson continued with his lawsuit, demanding the full re-instatement of the students. Apparently it was completely inconsequential that these young men had engaged in behavior that had endangered the lives of hundreds. In Jackson's eyes, it seems that they deserved no punishment whatsoever.

Thankfully, the courts disagreed. Yesterday, a federal judge ruled that the Decatur school board was entirely justified in its action. The judge found that the students' rights had been respected and that there was absolutely no evidence that white students in a similar situation would have been treated any differently.

Jackson remains obstinate. He still insists that there is a racial conspiracy and points to the fact that while blacks make up 47 percent of the student body in Decatur, they account for 87 percent of the expulsions. This is an unequivocally troubling statistic. However, racism it does not necessarily imply. At this point the appropriate logic seems trite, but perhaps it still bears repeating. If Asians account for a disproportionate percentage of the honor roll, should we assume that they are the beneficiaries of school board favoritism? There may be complicating factors that land black students in trouble, but those factors do not necessarily include administrative racism. Rather than defending seven men caught on tape fomenting a brawl, perhaps Jackson should be devoting the same energy to building an after-school program for disadvantaged youth in Decatur.

It is the final irony of this whole sordid affair that Jackson's actions have in the end dealt a serious blow to the welfare of the very community who he ostensibly cares so much about. The school board estimates that Jackson's lawsuit has cost them at least $100,000 to date. And, after losing yesterday, Jackson indicated that he plans to appeal. In Decatur, that $100,000 could have been used to pay the annual salaries of two additional teachers, update textbooks, purchase 100 new computers for classrooms, or maybe even lay the foundation for that hypothetical after-school program. Thanks to Jackson, it is now in the coffers of attorneys.

As things currently stand, in addition to the frivolous expense of his ranting, Jackson is probably the only national leader on record who objects to a "zero-tolerance" policy against school violence. Which begs the question: Why is Jackson still considered a national leader at all? In this, the wake of his latest misguided debacle, we again find ourselves fruitlessly awaiting the condemnation of his peers.

Meanwhile, back in Decatur, school officials, undoubtedly shaken by the vicious accusations and tumult that they have survived, are left with students to teach and order to maintain.

Noah D. Oppenheim '00 is a social studies concentrator in Adams House. His column will resume in February.