by Jacqueline Marino
he Memphis City Schools'
zero-tolerance policy, adopted to keep crime out of the schools, is now
being blamed for introducing more of it into the community.
School-board member TaJuan Stout-Mitchell introduced a proposal the board passed early this month, asking the superintendent to examine the policy's usage and effectiveness.
"There's only 500 alternative school slots. And this year we may be facing an expulsion rate of 800 or more," Stout-Mitchell says. "Would you want a child you know has a serious disciplinary problem on the street? I just don't think that's good for the community."
At present, students who commit certain acts, including striking a teacher or bringing a weapon into a school, face "zero-tolerance" retribution in the form of expulsion. Expelled students can then report to a number of alternative schools set up throughout the city.
When no alternative slots are available at alternative schools, however, expelled children often stay home alone without supervision. And that can lead to trouble. Along with Stout-Mitchell, board member Sara Lewis and Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth Turner have expressed concern that the zero-tolerance policy has increased the youth crime rate.
Turner says the school district should modify the policy to impose disciplinary measures on a case-by-case basis.
"I applaud the city for getting tough on the issue of weapons in school, but one punishment doesn't suit everyone," he says. "With more kids out [of school], being idle, there's more chance for them to get in trouble on the street."
While attorneys at the state level haggle over whether zero tolerance constitutes a blanket policy, pupil services director Dr. James Paavola says local cases are determined individually. But judging from the phone calls Lewis receives from worried parents, she suspects the policy is actually underused.
One example she cites concerns a pregnant teacher who was hit by a sixth-grader. The child was not expelled, and the teacher quit.
"Zero tolerance is meant to be individualized, but when a child hits a teacher, that doesn't need any individualization. That kid needs to be kept out of school," Lewis says.
The school year 1995-96 was a record for expulsions, with 605, and suspensions, with 12,111. Yet the school board has an alternative-school waiting list with more than 100 students on it, Paavola says.
Most involved in the zero-tolerance issue agree on one thing: The school district needs more space in alternative schools and centers for expelled and suspended children.
Stout-Mitchell has asked the city and a law-enforcement block-grant committee for a total of $4 million to establish four new facilities.
"I'd take 10 or 12 [students] in my office just to keep them off the street and in an appropriate environment," Lewis says.
by Phil Campbell
SINCE ITS NEWEST MEMBERS WERE sworn in last year, the Memphis City Council has prided itself on having the least controversial term in memory. That all changed last week, when Mayor W.W. Herenton objected to how much legal advice council attorney Allan Wade should actually be giving the council.
Now the mild-mannered council is wrestling with the mayor over how much power it has in relationship to him. The dispute may end with any number of agreeable or disagreeable resolutions, including a judicial decision, a referendum forcing voters to decide, or an out-of-court settlement.
Wade's duties are considered a separate issue. He may get fired from his part-time job, a possibility mayor spokeswoman Carey Hoffman wouldn't comment on Monday.
The dispute started with Wade filing a friend-of-the-court brief against the mayor over his appeal of last year's Bluffwalk lawsuit ruling. City Attorney Monice Hagler Tate filed a response last week to Wade's brief, arguing that he missed a court deadline. Herenton followed that up with an open letter saying that the council attorney had overstepped his bounds. "Further review of this role in city government is warranted," he wrote.
At the heart of the Bluffwalk case, say council members, is the mayor's ability to "pocket veto" an ordinance the council passes. Currently, Herenton has three options when faced with passed legislation: He can execute it, he can veto it, or he can ignore it. This last option is called the pocket veto. "When the council speaks by way of voting for policy, the executive branch ought to be responsible for executing it, in a timely way. Right now the council just doesn't have any means to react [from a pocket veto]," says council chairman Jerome Rubin.
Though it is a frustrating political maneuver, current and some former council members can only recall three times in the past decade a pocket veto has been used.
Rubin and council member Janet Hooks met with Herenton last Thursday, but nothing was settled. Since no one has any idea how a judge might rule, and since the city charter is unhelpful, how this issue might play out is anyone's guess.
"It's a milestone in Memphis history," argues former council member Jack Sammons. At one time Sammons was part of a council that publicly sparred with Mayor Dick Hackett, and later with Herenton. He described the current council as one that is often "eating out of the mayor's hand."
Sammons predicts that Herenton could be making a big mistake with this power struggle. "Hackett had his differences with his council over the years, but he was smart enough not to let some outside body like the court interpret his power."
Council member John Vergos, however, isn't so sure that the fight is one that anyone can win, and he's pushing for a compromise. "I read all three of those [Bluffwalk court] briefs, and there's not a slam dunk in the bunch," he says. "I think the court could go in many different ways, many of them no one wants. I have mentioned the possibility of a settlement in the Bluffwalk case [to other council members]. No one has said no yet."
Wade's role in the affair has been limited, but it is now a problem that the council has to address, Hooks says. Though he is supposed to provide advice to the city council, a conflict of interest becomes apparent when the council is at odds with the mayor, who is arguably Wade's boss.
"His job and his role is to really provide day-to-day advice to the city council," Tate says. "I think it has grown into something broader, which has created these conflict-of-interest divisions."
Wade sees it differently. "I was employed by the council," he says. "They approved [me] by resolution. I have always taken the position that I work for them. Until they are dissatisfied with my services, I will continue to work for them."
Hooks says she received a letter from Herenton last year in which he agreed to sign a contract that would make Wade independent of the city administration. Herenton has refused to sign the contract, though, she says.
The city council hopes to resolve the issue in its favor on March 4th, when it votes for an ordinance that would make all staff members on the council independent of the mayor.
That still might not end things, though. Tate says the only way that question could be resolved would be through a referendum to the voters.
by Mark Jordan
THE CITY AND COUNTY GOVERNments are discussing the establishment of a Memphis music commission which would promote the city's music-related industries, according to sources close to the talks.
At least two meetings have been held so far between local government officials and prominent members of the Memphis music community -- including producer and Crossroads organizer Eli Ball and the executive director of the local chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Jon Hornyak -- to discuss the city and county funding an office that would serve as a contact point and information clearinghouse for anyone interested in the Memphis music industry.
While both mayors have reportedly been receptive to the general idea and are close to earmarking sources of funding, many issues are still under consideration.
"Right now we're looking at [the proposed commission's] composition, its mission, and what's needed in an executive director," says Mayor Herenton's spokesperson, Carey Hoffman, adding that the office could be operational by summer.
The basic idea behind a Memphis music commission is based on similar groups in New Orleans and Austin. The Austin commission has been in existence since 1989, and has been behind such projects as distributing refurbished musical instruments to underprivileged school kids and erecting a statue honoring the late Stevie Ray Vaughan.
But the mission of a Memphis music commission could be considerably more ambitious, encompassing both tourism and industry. Besides serving as a liaison between the Memphis music community and outside business interests, a common role for such offices, some organizers have suggested the commission could play an important part in coordinating the city's myriad music-related projects, such as the proposed Grammy museum and the Smithsonian Institution's "Rock 'n' Soul" exhibit. Ball has said that such an office could also play a role in organizing Crossroads, the annual unsigned-band showcase that he returned to take charge of last month.
by Jacqueline Marino
A LONG-AWAITED HEALTH CENTER for homeless women and children, HOPE Health Center for the Homeless, is scheduled to open this week at 1025 Crump Blvd.
"This is not designed to be an emergency room. Our focus is health promotion and maintenance," says executive director Denese Shumaker, also the director of the Baptist School of Nursing. "People are telling us we'll be busy."
Baptist Memorial College of Health Sciences received a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to pay for the center's six-person staff, which includes two nurse practitioners and a social worker.
The center will occupy part of a former hospital building that Baptist had donated to the city, which was not able to convert the facility into a homeless center because renovation costs were too high. Baptist then gave the property to Mission Corps International, a nonprofit organization, which plans to open a homeless shelter there in March.
by Jacqueline Marino
IN THE MID-EIGHTIES, ROBERT Lipscomb visited young people at Walter Simmons housing development in Southeast Memphis to mentor and motivate them about their future. His experience prompted him to create Memphis Partners, a nonprofit organization that provides job training and placement for high-school students.
Since 1986, Memphis Partners has found jobs for students at many city agencies and businesses, including Memphis Light, Gas & Water, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and the Internal Revenue Service.
For his role in creating Memphis Partners, the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center has given Lipscomb, who is now senior vice president of finance at LeMoyne-Owen College, one of its 11 Peacemaker Community Awards for 1997. The awards recognize recipients for their efforts at building a more peaceful community.
Other 1997 award-winners are: Dr. Fred Donato for activism in the local Filipino community; Ina and Larry Fitzgerald for their volunteer work in the public schools; Donna Fortson, executive director for the Memphis Family Shelter, for homeless ministry; Hope House for taking care of HIV-affected children; Selma Lewis, chair of the advisory committee of the local board of Facing History and Ourselves, the national teacher-training organization, for lifetime achievement; Carl Nelson, chaplain at Mark Luttrell Reception Center, for violence prevention; the late AIDS activist Wallace Richards for AIDS ministry; longtime race-relations activist Mattie Sengstacke for community service; St. Mary's Alabama Redevelopment Team (SMART) for building neighborhood solidarity; and Facing History and Ourselves for social conscience.
The 1997 Peacemaker Awards will be presented at the Thomas Center of Christian Brothers University on Saturday, March 1st. The reception begins at 6:30 p.m., with dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 per person.