Judge Dick Ambrose Dismisses Charge Against Black Female Student Of Police Assault At Request Of Prosecutor Mason And As Racial Unrest Was Mounting
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose
Tina Bronaugh and Daughter and Cleveland Collinwood High School Student Destini Bronaugh
From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose on Wednesday granted a request by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason's office to dismiss charges of two counts of assault on a peace officer and resisting arrest against Collinwood High School student Destini Bronaugh, bringing the case to a current close. The dismissal comes less than a week after a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indicted the Black girl, who was arrested May 13 along with her younger sister, DeAsia Bronaugh, in what community activists and local Civil Rights organizations say is retaliation for participating in an organized student walkout at Collinwood High School in Cleveland around teacher layoffs and the slated closings of what is now 14 of Cleveland's public schools.
"We are pleased that County Prosecutor Bill Mason, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller and other leaders in the community were able to come together to ensure the dismissal of the malicious, racist, sexist and retaliatory charges against a Black female student who did nothing other than to exercise her constitutional right under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to speak out on Cleveland schools issues of public concern, " said Kathy Wray Coleman, a Cleveland area journalist and leader of the Imperial Women, a grassroots group formed last year after the remains of 11 Black women were found at the home of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell. "Had the charges not been dismissed we were prepared to protest and I have never seen such motivation in the community around such a matter and in support of what would have been a mass community protest. If any further action is taken against the Bronaugh family, including more harassment, we shall again mobilize to make it clear that we will not permit anybody to do in Black girls and other children in this community without standing up."
The unprecedented arrest of the girls, which involved three White male police officers hot on their trail, was caught on video by community activist Caleb Maupin, leader of the grassroots organization dubbed Cleveland F.I.S.T. It is posted on the YouTube website where it has generated over 12,000 hits under the title "Cleveland Police Brutalize Student Protesters." And without a doubt, racial unrest in Cleveland's grassroots, educational and Black communities was mounting around the arrests of the Black girls, whose mother would not back down.
"I had no prior knowledge of the protest, though my daughters have a constitutional right under the First Amendment to speak out on school issues like others," Tina Bronaugh told the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network after community groups such as the Imperial Women, Black on Black Crime Inc, the Oppressed People's Nation, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network, and the People's Forum began planning for a mass protest in support of the girls.
DeAsia Bronaugh, 17, had not been charged with assault and a Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Judge dismissed a curfew violation charge filed by police against her after a Collinwood High School teacher wrote a note saying allegedly that both girls came back in the school following the walkout after she asked them to and security at the school put them out for police to allegedly harass and arrest them. Destini Bronaugh, 19, was arrested by police after she questioned the arrest of her younger sister that day relative to the since dismissed curfew violation charge.
The Cleveland Board of Education voted to close 14 schools earlier this year and in April laid off 545 district teachers, 111 assistant principals and principals and 116 support staff. Ten of the assistant principals and principals were subsequently recalled, and teachers at low performing schools that were not laid off must reapply to teach at their current schools, an issue now before an arbitrator pursuant to a grievance recently filed by the Cleveland Teachers Union. The layoffs are part of a sweeping and costly schools transformation plan that mirrors similar transformation models in big cities such as Philadelphia and Chicago where, like Cleveland, teachers unions are feeling the heat and are fighting what is perceived by some as attempts to break the unions. Black leaders, however, are traditionally laying low and in a quandary, with some undecided as to whether the school transformation plans, including Cleveland's, are either long over due, or a mechanism for disaster.
The Cleveland Metropolitan School District is predominantly Black and the city of Cleveland has some 433,000 majority Black residents.
Tina Bronaugh and Daughter and Cleveland Collinwood High School Student Destini Bronaugh
From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose on Wednesday granted a request by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason's office to dismiss charges of two counts of assault on a peace officer and resisting arrest against Collinwood High School student Destini Bronaugh, bringing the case to a current close. The dismissal comes less than a week after a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indicted the Black girl, who was arrested May 13 along with her younger sister, DeAsia Bronaugh, in what community activists and local Civil Rights organizations say is retaliation for participating in an organized student walkout at Collinwood High School in Cleveland around teacher layoffs and the slated closings of what is now 14 of Cleveland's public schools.
"We are pleased that County Prosecutor Bill Mason, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller and other leaders in the community were able to come together to ensure the dismissal of the malicious, racist, sexist and retaliatory charges against a Black female student who did nothing other than to exercise her constitutional right under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to speak out on Cleveland schools issues of public concern, " said Kathy Wray Coleman, a Cleveland area journalist and leader of the Imperial Women, a grassroots group formed last year after the remains of 11 Black women were found at the home of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell. "Had the charges not been dismissed we were prepared to protest and I have never seen such motivation in the community around such a matter and in support of what would have been a mass community protest. If any further action is taken against the Bronaugh family, including more harassment, we shall again mobilize to make it clear that we will not permit anybody to do in Black girls and other children in this community without standing up."
The unprecedented arrest of the girls, which involved three White male police officers hot on their trail, was caught on video by community activist Caleb Maupin, leader of the grassroots organization dubbed Cleveland F.I.S.T. It is posted on the YouTube website where it has generated over 12,000 hits under the title "Cleveland Police Brutalize Student Protesters." And without a doubt, racial unrest in Cleveland's grassroots, educational and Black communities was mounting around the arrests of the Black girls, whose mother would not back down.
"I had no prior knowledge of the protest, though my daughters have a constitutional right under the First Amendment to speak out on school issues like others," Tina Bronaugh told the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network after community groups such as the Imperial Women, Black on Black Crime Inc, the Oppressed People's Nation, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network, and the People's Forum began planning for a mass protest in support of the girls.
DeAsia Bronaugh, 17, had not been charged with assault and a Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Judge dismissed a curfew violation charge filed by police against her after a Collinwood High School teacher wrote a note saying allegedly that both girls came back in the school following the walkout after she asked them to and security at the school put them out for police to allegedly harass and arrest them. Destini Bronaugh, 19, was arrested by police after she questioned the arrest of her younger sister that day relative to the since dismissed curfew violation charge.
The Cleveland Board of Education voted to close 14 schools earlier this year and in April laid off 545 district teachers, 111 assistant principals and principals and 116 support staff. Ten of the assistant principals and principals were subsequently recalled, and teachers at low performing schools that were not laid off must reapply to teach at their current schools, an issue now before an arbitrator pursuant to a grievance recently filed by the Cleveland Teachers Union. The layoffs are part of a sweeping and costly schools transformation plan that mirrors similar transformation models in big cities such as Philadelphia and Chicago where, like Cleveland, teachers unions are feeling the heat and are fighting what is perceived by some as attempts to break the unions. Black leaders, however, are traditionally laying low and in a quandary, with some undecided as to whether the school transformation plans, including Cleveland's, are either long over due, or a mechanism for disaster.
The Cleveland Metropolitan School District is predominantly Black and the city of Cleveland has some 433,000 majority Black residents.
.jpeg)
Comments