It’s time to demand better schools for youth of Memphis
Schools that have been disappointing our children for years need to be called out.
We know when students aren’t receiving the education they deserve, our entire community pays the price.
As powerful parents, we won’t let it slide any longer—so we’re blowing the
Once again, Memphis finds itself locked in a debate about the merits of police surveillance and how to best oversee law enforcement. It may be useful to review a few incidents from the recent past. h In 2015, the Commercial Appeal published an investigative report on two dozen fatal shootings by Memphis police officers over a five year period. MPD had little to say publicly and the results of the investigations were generally hidden from the public. No officer was indicted. whistle and demanding change.
Last month, The Memphis Lift released our very first Watchlist to bring increased attention and accountability to schools that have been low performing for at least three years and are underachieving students.
This year’s Watchlist is comprised of five local schools— Geeter Middle, Fairley High School, Martin Luther King Prep, Trezevant High, and Power Center Academy High School.
These are not the only schools in Memphis that need attention, and all failing schools should be addressed urgently.
These five rose to the top and landed on our Watchlist based on consistent low student growth and negative feedback we’ve heard from parents across the city.
In the 2018, more than 2,500 students attended the five schools I mentioned earlier.
Three of the five schools are considered “Priority Schools,” which means they ranked in the bottom five percent of all public schools in Tennessee, and all five of these schools received the lowest possible score for student growth for three years straight.
When four of the schools on the Watchlist are high schools, three straight years of the lowest level of student growth means thousands of kids graduate high school enter our community as adults who are unprepared.
How can these students to be ready for college or start a career if they aren’t getting the education they need and
A trend of injustice
Also in 2015, not long after the report on police killings was published, unarmed teenager Darrius Stewart was shot and killed by Memphis police officer Connor Schilling after a traffic stop. Schilling would later take disability retirement and collect 60% of his salary for the rest of his life. He reportedly suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He was not indicted for killing Darrius.
Following a traffic stop in 2018, Memphis Police officers turned off their body cameras before shooting Martavious Banks. During its investigation, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reportedly had difficulty piecing together details about the shooting itself because of the lack of body camera footage.
One officer resigned and two others were disciplined as a result of the chase and shooting. Local media later reported 53 additional documented instances of officers turning off their body cameras against department policy.
Two years ago, we learned that Mayor Strickland's administration kept a “blacklist” of former protestors, clergy members, family of Darrius Stewart, and others, who were not permitted to enter Memphis City Hall.
In addition to the blacklist, MPD was surveilling people using fake social media accounts and a monitoring tool called “Geofeedia.” In the wake of these discoveries, the ACLU of Tennessee opened legal proceedings against the City of Memphis based on a 1978 settlement in which the city agreed not to carry out political surveillance of innocent civilians.
As it was done 40 years earlier, a Federal court ordered MPD to stop using tactics like these that violate citizens' rights. Mayor Strickland and Police Director Mike Rallings say the police are so hampered by the consent decree that they can't possibly keep us safe.
How the city is working toward accountability
Last week, Councilmen Worth Morgan and Kemp Conrad suggested that those of us who support the idea of citizen oversight of law enforcement “have a big anti-police bias.” Conrad said he thinks “MPD investigates these things.” The Memphis City Council is in the process of replacing the Citizen Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB), the only independent mechanism of police accountability, with itself.
These assertions make a mockery of the notion that the Memphis City Council can adequately enforce police accountability. Mayor Strickland declined to comment on the CLERB announcement, and his police director deferred to the Council. The foxes have decided, it seems, that they are the best guards of the henhouse.
Much like another proverbial animal - the frog in a pot of slowly boiling water - the people of Memphis have become ever more accustomed to the arrogance and condescension of leadership that resists any attempt to look after it or question its authority. Any resistance is identical to criminal behavior itself, while the watchers sworn to serve and protect - are above reproach.
Amid their countless blue-light cameras, blacklists, fake social media accounts, plain clothes officers, and other infiltration tactics, city and police leadership would have us believe we have nothing to fear. Perhaps this is true. Gandhi once said, “Truth never damages a cause that is just.” Indeed, there are few causes more noble, honorable, and just than being a police officer.
Far from anti-police, those of us who value accountability and transparency in our government, only want a framework for oversight that values difficult and dangerous police work, protects us all equally, and guides us to truth. Sadly, that seems too much to ask.
Josh Spickler is executive director of Just City, a nonprofit criminal justice reform organization in Memphis.