Catherine Ferguson Academy: Why are Pregnant Teens Being Arrested in Detroit?

Over the past few days I've been wondering why has the above story yet to catch on in the mainstream media. Honestly, outside of Rachel Maddow covering it, I don't hear much. But then it hit me that this story involves the already embattled city of Detroit, and a group of twelve students arrested for peacefully protesting the potential closing of their school. Yes, a story about kids fighting to keep a school open just isn't as "sexy" as say, a story highlighting the dysfunction of one hundred pregnant teens at a Memphis, TN. school. A story which caught national attention and had the blogosphere ablaze, black people hanging their heads in shame, and even a local mayor defending the school.

Oh well, if only the students and teachers at Detroit's Catherine Furguson Academy could be so lucky to garner some much needed media attention. The school is designated as one scheduled for closure by Detroit's Emergency Financial Manager, Robert Bobb. It is still to be determined if the school itself would be transformed into a charter school. But Bobb with powers granted by the governor's Financial Martial Law otherwise known as Public Act 4, ultimately hods the trump cards in that decision; right now, there's a fifty-fifty chance that the school stays open; that is, unless it's profitable.

You see, good Ole Robert Bobb, like a dictator, has sweeping powers to modify contracts, fire officials, and disregard public input. As a matter of protocol, he has already issued lay off notices to some 5,466 public teachers. Some of whom he hopes to rehire to work at for profit charter schools of the forty one proposed closed schools which would house some 16,000 Detroit students, Before this proposal, Bobb did the media tour crying about having to reduce the public school system to an average of sixty kids per classroom. An announcement which I think set the stage for the privatization of Detroit schools.

Well damn RiPPa, why err'thing gotta be a conspiracy with you?

Well, it turns out per Forbes that Bobb is a recent graduate of the Broad's Foundation Superintendent Academy. Here's what E,D. Kain has to say about Bobb, the Broad Foundation, and what I see as motive:

The Broad Foundation, along with the Kellogg Foundation, pays Bobb $145,000 a year on top of his $280,000 government salary. For those of you not familiar with Broad, it is one of the leading foundations promoting school choice and privatization across the country. One might almost think that paying a public official hundreds of thousands of dollars a year might amount to nothing short of bribery, especially given the very specific agenda of a foundation like the Broad Foundation.

Now, Bobb is proposing to create charter schools for 16,000 students from 41 schools slated for closure. He argues that this will save millions of dollars. I have to wonder, however, at the conflict of interest.

[...] What we have in Detroit is an Emergency Manager appointed by the previous governor who was facing a challenge from the School District which was frustrated by his top-down approach to school reform. That challenge was effectively crushed by the passage of Public Act 4. This same Emergency Manager was a graduate from a foundation that promotes corporate school reform and also pays around a third of his six-figure salary. The Emergency Manager has the power to break union contracts, layoff teachers, and open charter schools that benefit the same foundation that is so heavily invested in the Emergency Manager’s career.

This is nothing short of a coordinated effort between the billionaire foundations pushing school reform and Tea Party conservatives intent on slashing benefits and ending collective bargaining rights. Public schools are under assault by the forces of privatization, and public school teachers face benefit and salary cuts while the very rich are promised tax cuts. Similar efforts are underway in Florida and Wisconsin.

I couldn't agree with Kain's assessment anymore than I already have. Clearly we've already seen how this is working out for the residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, a small town with a 90% Black population where as it stands their votes no longer matter. I know, this type of stuff isn't supposed to happen in the great democratic experiment that is America. But as the saying goes: when there's blood on the streets, buy property. In the case of Detroit, charter schools seems to be the profit model, while in Benton Harbor, it's about a building a golf course and executive resort of the wealthy power brokers of Michigan.

Hopefully somebody's paying attention to this. Because it would be a damn shame if a school for which boasts of a 90% graduation rate and 100% college acceptance is closed for good. Or handed over to corporatists whose only concern at the end of the day is the profit margin, and not the students.

Saying No to Pregnant Women in Bars & Yes to Pregnant Teens in Frayser High School

OK, so I know what you're thinking. Yep, you're probably staring at the pic above and wondering; is this woman really in a bar or nightclub pregnant, and chugging down a few beers? Yeah I know, I did the same thing too; and, a part of me wants to think she's drinking that new Kool Aid that comes in a brown bottle. But then gravity hit and pulled me back to reality; I realized that there are women, who though pregnant frequent these spots without a care.

Case in point, check out what happened to Michelle Lee:

A bar in suburban Roselle could end up in a legal battle after forcing a woman to leave because she was eight months pregnant.

Michelle Lee, a 29-year-old Chicago native now living in Denver, came into town for a baby shower last week and her friends talked her into a night out afterward, ABC News reports.

Lee and her friends went to the Coach House in Roselle--about 30 miles northwest of Chicago--where she planned on drinking some water and having a slice of pizza, until a bouncer approached.

"He said to me, 'I have a personal question to ask you, are you pregnant?' I said yes. Then he said, 'I'm going to have to ask you to leave,'" Lee told ABC.

The Baby Momma's Momma's Momma: Ignorance, Guilt, Religion, & Disregard

by Tracy Renee Jones

She’s twenty years old now. My greatest accomplishment and most trying and involved personal project, my daughter is so very much the reason that I still exist. I wouldn’t be here had it not been for her being here. I’m not sure at what point I would go back in time and choose to do anything differently. So many links in a chain of events contributed to her being here.

Life is supposed to be precious because ‘they’ say so, but life isn’t precious. Nor is life a great blessing, nor is life a journey. Life…..is a repetitive cycle of complicated challenges, innumerable daily obstacles, disappointments, frustrations, and thankless requirements.

Life is a bitch…and then you die. I have life, because I chose to give my daughter life, because I was taught that that is the ‘right’ thing to do. I live, because I’ve always been painfully aware of what life is really like and I refuse to allow my daughter to face THIS shit on her own.

No Wedding, No Womb: DICK, DUDES, & DECISIONS [#NWNW]

By Tracy Renee Jones

I don’t know what to think at this point. Is #NWNW... No Willie, No Worries? No Way, No Wood? No Wedding, No Waka? No Wage, No Wedding? Or is it No Roger, No Re-Run, No Rent? Honestly, I’m getting dizzy. And I think I’m insulted…or maybe I'm not, and the theme makes sense but the mission lacks any particular stance, so is it NOT MEANT for me to figure out which side I’m on?

Maybe my only participation in the debate about my pussy, my potential (partner) and my partner’s (potential) is for me to sit here and be further confused (and contribute to these pages hits on all these websites). What was I supposed to be saying ? Oh, yeah..so….DICK, DUDES and DECISIONS.

Do I think the "No Wedding; No Womb!" campaign to be a worthy one? Indeed, I do think the cause is worthy…YOUNG BLACK PEOPLE are more than worthy. I say this as a single mother because this shit ain’t a cake walk. Back when I was a teen, no one openly discussed being a single mother, or sex, or relationships, or the potential a young person has if they choose to make critical decisions and the follow through involved when it came to obtaining life goals.

Back then, a young person had demands placed on their raging, growing (growling) hormones and not much else to go by. I feel that the NWNW opens the discussion about why more Black women do NOT control their incidences of birth in this day and age and I’m all for that.

Pure F*ckery: Young Girls Proudly Selling P*ssy

OK look, we here at TIOMAR have a penchant for presenting to you our dear readers what we deem as fuckery around the internet. We're still trying to figure out just why we do it; but, I guess something positive can be gained by the exposure of said fuckery. Yes, we don't do this shit for fun, people!

I dunno, it's sorta like the fuckery check list. You know, after seeing it here, you the reader can then simply check it off your potential fuckery-to-do-list. I mean hell, we're all prone to commit fuckericious acts, no?

This week we bring to you a female rap group based in that eternal-never-ending home of all things fucked up about the black community: Atlanta, Georgia. Sorry Atlanta readers; send me all the hate mail you want, but you folks need to keep the fuckery at a minimum... no shade.

But anyway, check this video out, and please, for the purpose of an upcoming post - a very deep and significant post meant to save lives - answer the question posed below. Seriously, it would be doing this site a huge service by watching this, and answering the question. Yeah, we do research around this camp too:


QUESTION: If your teenage daughter gets pregnant, can you blame it on Hip Hop? I'm only asking because I'm told that Hip Hop promotes single motherhood which is detrimental to the black community.

Like I said, there's more to come on this, but this is what I'm told. Supposedly 50 Cent's line, "Have a baby by me baby, be a millionaire," encourages females - young black females - to be promiscuous; are you buying that idea?

Platinum Uterus Puts Baby Mama Breeding on the Map

By Ecosoulintellectual

All of the condoms and safe sex talks that underfunded clinics distributed through the years in inner city and poor rural areas to prevent the "scorn" of teen pregnancy.

The gorge of HIV warnings with the absence of youth employment and recreational programs.

Then you have the shun of being an African-American or Latina teen mother have haunted, no, have plagued our communities.

And now you have Bristol Palin, the born-again-virgin, getting paid $15k - $30k to speak about popping her couchie with a moose-killer who loves to "shoot shit."

Just to think, a sigificant portion of this country were about to put in the White House, two generations of inbred breeders.

I puke at the fact that Sarah and her sperm collecting daughter, Bristol, use their children to make money off of the very things they rail against in political spaces.

I really believe there is some pimp in the back ground directing these two or possibly some real life "V" aliens pulling strings because this is outrageous.

READ MORE @ Eco.Soul.Intellectual

115 baby mommas, in one high school?!!

OK, the brother in the picture above has not impregnated 115 women. I just thought the above pic goes well with this next story. From the looks of it, this brother is in for an early grave as he hopefully works himself to death to provide for his children. Yep, what you see above in my opinion should be plastered on a billboard in urban communities as an ad for either Trojans or the county child support prosecutor. But like I said, this isn't about him, but instead yet another negative and troubling story coming out of Chicago Illinois. What is it about all the negative stuff coming from the Windy City lately?



Check it out:

Teen pregnancy is obviously not a welcomed situation; and yes, ideally it would be best if teenagers waited until they're responsible adults before taking on the task of child rearing. But this is the real world, and it just doesn't happen that way; and the story above leaves you with the feeling that Black teens are out of control, did it not? Yep, I saw this as another one of those “look at the Negroes,” exposes. Which they did a damn good job at I might add; they even went as far as to highlight the fact that the school principal himself was born to a 15yr old mother.

But you see, to me this is what I call irresponsible journalism. They highlighted what they saw as a “problem” within that school, but were unable to present you any empirical evidence or information as it relates to teen pregnancy in the entire school district. Instead, you're supposed to walk away with the impression that, well, Black teenagers (because that's the only ethnic group represented in the piece) are rather promiscuous. Which goes right along with the idea that Black folks are hyper-sexual beings - yeah, it's exclusive to our DNA.

And then there was this tidbit from the piece:

“LaDonna Denson and two other Robeson students say parents not talking to teens and, in some cases, the pursuit of public assistance also factor into the pregnancies. None of them thought they'd be moms at such a young age.” - (Source)

Yep, they identified the possible causation, and they had to include that “the pursuit of public assistance also factor into these pregnancies.” Uh-huh, Black people love them some welfare don't they? Did they really have to include that opinion in the piece? They never provided any solutions, and yes I know three minutes isn't enough time to even go there. But at least they did offer us a bit of hope by way of highlighting the fact that a one-time crackhouse will soon be used as a daycare center for those students who intentionally got pregnant just so they can get welfare.

What say you?