Trial To Start Of Black Cleveland Schools Student Accused Of Assaulting White Police Officers In Student Arrest During Protest Of Teacher Layoffs
Former Cleveland Collinwood High School student Destini Bronaugh (below right), who graduated from high school this summer, and her 17 year-old sister. Both are the subject of an alleged malicious prosecution for participating in a student-organized protest in May over school closings and teacher layoffs, and the younger Bronaugh sister is set to go to trial this week on what community activists say are bogus charges initiated by Cleveland police and county prosecutors in retaliation for the exercise of free speech on issues of public concern 
From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
The criminal trial of a Black 17-year-old Cleveland schools student who was arrested in May for participating in a a student-organized protest at Collinwood High School over school closings and teacher layoffs and charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and allegedly assaulting two White male police officers, is scheduled to begin before a Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court magistrate on Aug 25 at 1:30 p m. And the girl's mother is calling the prosecution racist, sexist and retaliatory for the constitutionally protected exercise of free speech on issues of public concern. In addition to Cleveland police, she is blaming the fiasco on Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland schools CEO Dr. Eugene Sanders and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, whose office is prosecuting the case of the minor on behalf of the State of Ohio.
"Here we have a Black mayor that by law controls Cleveland's public schools and a Black schools CEO participating by being quiet or by issuing orders in the illegal and unfair prosecution of two Black girls, with the help of the county prosecutor," said Tina Bronaugh, mother of the teen. "It is obvious that they could care less about Black students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and that they will abuse and misuse them for political purposes, and I am appalled."
The outspoken mother also took on the Cleveland Teachers Union, saying its leadership team is anti-Black and anti-student.
"If my daughters were White students that protested over teacher layoffs the union would have publicly supported them," she said.
Cleveland Teachers Union President David Quoke did not return calls seeking comment, though a union official has said that the union has not taken a stance in the matter.
The community dilemma unraveled at Collinwood High School on Cleveland's predominantly Black East Side of town on May 13 as a group of about 30 students, led by Collinwood student Seth Barlekamp, who is White, attempted to leave the school to protest district wide teacher layoffs and the the closings this summer of 14 Cleveland schools, all but two on the East Side. School administrators allegedly convinced some of the students to return to class with the threat of a suspension but about 20 of them proceeded to the protest anyway. Determined to stop the protesting students by any means legal, or possibly illegal, Cleveland police confronted the students, eventually arresting 19 year-old Destini Bronaugh, and her 17 year-old sister, who in addition to the other charges, was charged with violating day-time curfew, a charge later dismissed by a juvenile court magistrate. Both girls had gone back into the school before the protest per a teacher's request but were put out, and Destini Bronaugh was arrested after she questioned the arrest of her younger sister.
Destini Bronaugh, 19, who graduated from Collinwood High School this summer, is awaiting trial before Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough on misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and obstruction of official business, both brought by the City of Cleveland without any outcry from Jackson, who is nearly a year into a second four-year term as mayor of the majority Black major metropolitan city.
Grassroots activists have protested around the saga on at least two occasions, saying that the Bronaugh girls are being maliciously prosecuted because they are Black, female and from a lower socio-economic background. Don Bryant, leader of the People's Forum and the Greater Cleveland immigrant Support Network, and a member of the Imperial Women and Black on Black Crime Inc, said that a protest will be held at 12:30 p m in front of juvenile court before the start of Wednesday's trial of the 17-year-old Bronaugh sister. Both girls have pleaded not guilty to all charges and are represented by prominent Cleveland Attorney Terry Gilbert, who is expected to demand a trial by jury in both cases, allegedly at the request of the family.
To contact Bryant call 440-623-0492.
From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
The criminal trial of a Black 17-year-old Cleveland schools student who was arrested in May for participating in a a student-organized protest at Collinwood High School over school closings and teacher layoffs and charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and allegedly assaulting two White male police officers, is scheduled to begin before a Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court magistrate on Aug 25 at 1:30 p m. And the girl's mother is calling the prosecution racist, sexist and retaliatory for the constitutionally protected exercise of free speech on issues of public concern. In addition to Cleveland police, she is blaming the fiasco on Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland schools CEO Dr. Eugene Sanders and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, whose office is prosecuting the case of the minor on behalf of the State of Ohio.
"Here we have a Black mayor that by law controls Cleveland's public schools and a Black schools CEO participating by being quiet or by issuing orders in the illegal and unfair prosecution of two Black girls, with the help of the county prosecutor," said Tina Bronaugh, mother of the teen. "It is obvious that they could care less about Black students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and that they will abuse and misuse them for political purposes, and I am appalled."
The outspoken mother also took on the Cleveland Teachers Union, saying its leadership team is anti-Black and anti-student.
"If my daughters were White students that protested over teacher layoffs the union would have publicly supported them," she said.
Cleveland Teachers Union President David Quoke did not return calls seeking comment, though a union official has said that the union has not taken a stance in the matter.
The community dilemma unraveled at Collinwood High School on Cleveland's predominantly Black East Side of town on May 13 as a group of about 30 students, led by Collinwood student Seth Barlekamp, who is White, attempted to leave the school to protest district wide teacher layoffs and the the closings this summer of 14 Cleveland schools, all but two on the East Side. School administrators allegedly convinced some of the students to return to class with the threat of a suspension but about 20 of them proceeded to the protest anyway. Determined to stop the protesting students by any means legal, or possibly illegal, Cleveland police confronted the students, eventually arresting 19 year-old Destini Bronaugh, and her 17 year-old sister, who in addition to the other charges, was charged with violating day-time curfew, a charge later dismissed by a juvenile court magistrate. Both girls had gone back into the school before the protest per a teacher's request but were put out, and Destini Bronaugh was arrested after she questioned the arrest of her younger sister.
Destini Bronaugh, 19, who graduated from Collinwood High School this summer, is awaiting trial before Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough on misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and obstruction of official business, both brought by the City of Cleveland without any outcry from Jackson, who is nearly a year into a second four-year term as mayor of the majority Black major metropolitan city.
Grassroots activists have protested around the saga on at least two occasions, saying that the Bronaugh girls are being maliciously prosecuted because they are Black, female and from a lower socio-economic background. Don Bryant, leader of the People's Forum and the Greater Cleveland immigrant Support Network, and a member of the Imperial Women and Black on Black Crime Inc, said that a protest will be held at 12:30 p m in front of juvenile court before the start of Wednesday's trial of the 17-year-old Bronaugh sister. Both girls have pleaded not guilty to all charges and are represented by prominent Cleveland Attorney Terry Gilbert, who is expected to demand a trial by jury in both cases, allegedly at the request of the family.
To contact Bryant call 440-623-0492.
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