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Seven Days

Wednesday, February 4
• A Knoxville woman, represented for free by former state Rep. Wayne Ritchie, sues everyone but the NFL who was involved in the Janet Jackson boob-baring at the Super Bowl. She claims she and all Americans were "injured" by the "wardrobe failure." Ritchie, who ought to know the difference between a hopelessly tasteless act and a "seriously" injurious one, files the class action suit in federal court with a straight face.

Thursday, February 5
• UConn eats UT's lunch again at the Lady Vols home court picnic. The Lady Vols were rated No. 1 in the nation before the game. In their dreams.

Friday, February 6
• BellSouth, which championed telephone deregulation as a way of holding down phone rates, increases them again by 1.6 percent across the board in Tennessee, but says a "regrouping" maneuver that would bring rates up by as much as 22 percent in some areas of the state is not an increase. Yeah, and regulation wasn't regulation, either, was it?

Saturday, February 7
• Frank Cagle, the News Sentinel columnist and radio talk show host, reveals he went through (successful) quadruple bypass surgery recently, proving to everyone but Don Sundquist that he has a heart. Reached for comment, Sundquist growled something about believing that Cagle's heart had been bypassed long ago.

Sunday, February 8
• Anti-Klan protesters show up in force at Nashville's Riverfront Park to counter a planned recruiting rally by the Ku Klux Klan's National Knights of Tennessee. The Klan fails to show up at all in the freezing cold. Fair weather Kluxers. We knew it.

Monday, February 9
• The woman who sued for damages she claimed from the Janet Jackson Super Bowl breast-bearing incident withdraws the claim, and her attorney, Wayne Ritchie, says she got what she wanted, in the form of the message the suit sent to corporate America that the public trust is violated by such a televised flashing. There was a message sent by the suit, all right. It's not a new message, though- that some people will litigate over anything that annoys them. Anything.

Tuesday, February 10
• An election, including primaries for some county offices, some school board seats, and the office of President of the United States, is held in Tennessee. If you hadn't yet heard about it, you read it here first.

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
The sign pictured is located on the side of the old Butler Shoes building on Wall Street at the Gay intersection. Though half of the building was recently, uh, removed, the remaining half of the structure with sign displayed still remains. A hearty congratulations to Douglas Clark of Knoxville for correctly identifying last week's obscure landmark. Please feel free to stop by our office at any time (during regular business hours) to pick up your advance copy of Balance of Trade, a fantastical Sci-Fi adventure novel by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Live long and prosper!

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

METROPOLITAN PLANNING COMMISSION
Thursday, February 12
1:30 p.m.
Main Assembly Room, City County Building

CITY COUNCIL
Tuesday, February 17
7 p.m.
Main Assembly Room, City County Building

METROPOLITAN KNOXVILLE AIRPORT AUTHORITY
Wednesday, February 18
8 p.m.
McGhee Tyson Airport

The Lock Up

Local advocates try to make the juvenile justice system fair

African Americans make up about 20 percent of the population in Tennessee in the 12 to 17 age group. But in 2000, of all the minors confined in the state's juvenile justice system, 70 percent were African American, and 59 percent of juveniles transferred to adult court in the state were also African American.

The reasons behind that alarming disparity are numerous and complicated. But activist Dennie Littlejohn says the biggest one problem is simple: apathy.

"It's a whole set of problems. The biggest problem is the social apathy-we don't care. The attitude is if they commit a crime, lock them up. Not realizing that they're going to get out some day," Littlejohn says.

It's a problem Littlejohn has been trying to address for a long time. He thinks the population and the local institutions are finally ready to try to respond to the issue.

He started a prison ministry in the '70s at Brushy Mountain, working with minority inmates. "I realized that was too late, and I needed to start working with young people," he says.

In 1988, people advocating for this issue around the country made a breakthrough. Congress passed an amendment to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act requiring states to "address efforts to reduce the proportion of juveniles detained or confined in secure detention facilities, secure correctional facilities, jails and lockups who are members of minority groups if such proportion exceeds the proportion such groups represent in the general population."

Despite that mandate, few states have done much to adjust the proportions. The official terms are Disproportionate Minority Confinement (or DMC), which refers to a high percentage of minority youths in secure facilities, and Minority Overrepresentation (or MOR), which refers to a high percentage of minorities who come into contact with the juvenile justice system.

Advocates point to a number of reasons why so many minorities are in the system. Minorities also happen to be disproportionately poor, more likely to have single-parent families, live in crime- and drug-ridden areas.

"Being poor doesn't make you a criminal, but it's part of it," Littlejohn says. "If you live in areas where the crime rate is higher-black or white, rich or poor-police tend to be there more. So you encounter the police more."

Institutional problems also factor in. Minority children are suspended from school at higher rates (a frequency zero-tolerance polices have exacerbated). There are few minority custodians in the justice system or foster care homes.

And oftentimes people in power are either outright racist or simply don't understand the cultural backgrounds minorities are coming from.

Littlejohn remembers the attitudes of some white judges when he first started looking at the problem back in the '80s. "Juvenile judges are all white. The radical black position was it's the judges. The radical white judges' position was they commit more crimes," he says. "That's what I'd hear-'black kids commit more crime. Do the crime, gotta do the time.'"

Doricia Crawford, an attorney recently hired by Legal Aid of East Tennessee to address DMC issues, says cultural training can go a long way to addressing some problems. For instance, a Latino teenager in court won't likely look a judge in the eye, because it's a sign of disrespect. The judge might interpret it as a sign of guilt.

Part of Crawford's job will be to provide legal representation for children. She'll also act as a community advocate to educate people. "Once we address these issues of culture and race, we can move forward," she says. "The decisions [made with minority youth] may not be overtly racist or discriminatory, but they may not have a cultural perspective."

Littlejohn says the main institutions involved-the Knox County School District, the District Attorney's and Public Defenders offices, the police departments, the Juvenile Courts, the service providers-all seem eager to do something about the problem. What's missing is leadership and money. He'd like all the major players take a thorough look at juvenile justice and see what's working and what isn't.

"What are we doing? Most people don't know what we're doing for juvenile justice. How does the system work and what's missing? Is there some way we can tweak that and get better services for our youth," he says. "We've done well in educating. We've done well organizing. Where we have not done well-what we're trying to do now-is developing programs that work.

"We may have to come up with some other institution than the courts or the schools to deal with the problem. Because the courts and schools don't get along at all," Littlejohn says, referring to zero-tolerance polices which have shifted problem kids out of schools and into the court system.

He'd like to see a policy-adopted by one county in Oregon-of reducing all children in confinement. That would force the courts, schools and social service agencies to develop new programs to deal with them. "We could spend $10,000 to help a child verses $40,000 to lock them up. To me that just makes sense," he says.

"You're not going to eliminate crime, but you'll be prepared for it," he adds. "That's for all kids. I'm particularly interested in black kids, because historically it's not been fair. It's still not fair."

—Joe Tarr

Make It Happen
Parents, teachers unite Lonsdale Elementary

After several years of being without representation, Lonsdale Elementary School formed a Parent Teacher Organization with the help of Cedar Springs Church last fall. With an initial roll of four members, the roster has grown to 147 in recent months. The formation of the PTO signifies a new willingness of the students' parents to play a more active role in their children's elementary education.

After Cedar Springs Church adopted the school, the church purchased and donated new cafeteria tables. This gesture of goodwill initiated the foundation of the organization and the deal was sealed and celebrated with a luncheon for parents and students catered by Backyard Burger.

However, the catalyst for the PTO's exponential growth came at Christmas when students performed at a traditional Christmas program complete with Santa Claus. The turnout was overwhelming, and the school approached parents about joining the association. In addition, a sale was held over Christmas. In order to participate, Lonsdale Elementary requested a donation of $1 at the door to purchase donated bags of garments for $1 each.

And to energize the students' interest in the school, Lonsdale Elementary allowed them to pick a name for the cafeteria by a popular vote. The cafeteria was dubbed "A Great Day for Learning Café" for the message that they're greeted with each morning during regular announcements.

Currently, the PTO is in the midst of helping the fourth and fifth grade classes generate funds for an upcoming trip to River Ridge Campground located in Kingsport. The trip, which was funded partially by $2,500 raised by a candy sale, will allow students that might not have an opportunity otherwise to experience nature first hand.

As to the dissolution of previous PTO incarnations, Vice-Principal Claudia Abbot mentions, "It slowly faded out. We had a lot of people in it, and as time went on it wasn't refurbished.

"We decided that we were going to try it again," she says. "Being adopted by the church made everything fall into place and seem like the right time. We decided to go with it and see what was going to happen."

On the horizon for Lonsdale Elementary is the construction of a marquee sign in front of the school to list and promote upcoming events. Future money generated by fundraisers has been earmarked for the cause.

—Clint Casey