TL;DR → 📚 Books! 📚
Teens vandalized an abandoned building once used to educate black children during the heyday of legalized segregation. Their “artwork” included racist slurs and a swastika. Turns out, the same kids possessed no historical understanding of “swastika.”
The lack of a prior record triggered likely probation. But both the D.A. and judge saw an educational opportunity, and exploited it. Each kid was sentenced to reading a book a month, each book focused on the pain and tragedies of racial injustice.
Two years after the incident, Rueda’s sentencing did exactly what she hoped it would. The kids are sticking to their education; they have not reoffended; and based on their essays as well as statements from the teens’ parents and lawyers, they were all “embarrassed” and regretful of their crime.
We live in an age when the NYTimes and others conjure blatantly ignorant headlines—”racially tinged”, “racially charged”—in an abysmal effort to duck the obvious: racist behavior. While the mental acumen of such adults reaches no higher than that of a lobotomized flea, kids remain susceptible to learning…. and unlearning. That gives this former prosecutor hope, while gifting a heartfelt smile.
Judge Sentences Teen Vandals to Reading Books About Racism – and It Apparently Worked