This story was originally published by ProPublica.
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Friday 15 April 2016. Hobgood Elementary School Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Three police officers were packed in the office of the assistant principal in Hobgood Elementary School. Tammy Garrett, the school's principal, was not sure about what she should do. One officer, dressed in an armored vest telling her to go get the children. Another officers was saying to her to not take the kids away. The third officer didn't say anything.
Garrett knew that police were sent to detain children however, the exact names of the children, as it turned out, was not clear for everyone, including the officers. The names that police had provided to the principal contained four girls who were now in classrooms across the school. The girls were all Black. There was an eighth grader three fourth graders, as well as an eighth grader. The youngest was eight. When she was 8 on a sunny Friday afternoon in spring, she was wearing her hair in ponytails.
A couple of weeks earlier the incident, a video was posted on YouTube. It featured two little boys aged age 5 and 6 fighting with an older boy, who walked away as other children followed with them, some shouting. The fight took place on the school's grounds following playing a game of basketball pickup. A child slammed another's mother, which is the reason for the incident.
The police were in Hobgood because of the video. However, they weren't here for the kids who threw punches. They came to help the kids who watched at. Police in Murfreesboro the city of rapid growth just 30 miles south of Nashville was able to secure juvenile petitions for 10 kids at a time that were accused of not doing enough to end the fighting. The officers were now taking in youngsters despite the fact that police did not recognize a single child on the footage, and it was uploaded using a filter that caused faces to appear fuzzy. The only thing that was obvious were the voices, which included the one of a girl who was trying to stop the fighting and yelling: "Stop, Tay-Tay. Stop Tay-Tay. Stop Tay-Tay." She was a fourth-grade student at Hobgood. The initials of her name were E.J.
There was confusion in Hobgood the confusion at Hobgood -- one police officer saying this, another stating that -- can be traced to absence. A police officer , who was assigned to Hobgood and who was familiar with the students and the teachers was released that morning following the announcement of planned arrests. The thought of apprehension for these kids caused him to feel such anxiety that he was afraid that he could weep before them. or suffer heart attacks. He was not interested in having anything to be involved as he felt chest pains, and then went homewithout information to inform his family on what was to come.
In addition, there was no police officer who was investigating the footage and led the detentions Chrystal Templeton. Templeton had later assured the chief she would be at the scene. She also informed Garrett that there would not be handcuffs and that the police would remain discreet. However, Templeton was not there. Garrett even sent her a text message -"How's timing? "How's the timing?" -- but she didn't respond. read more....
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