In Pittsburgh, a lovely mom by the name of Dai’Shonta Williams got a little bit upset with her 4th grade child's teacher. So she did what any rational parent would do, she called the school and requested a meeting to discuss her concerns with the teacher, Janice Watkins.
Yeah, that is not what happened.
No, instead Dai’Shonta decided to ambush the teacher after school because the teacher had the audacity to confiscate the 4th grader's cell phone in a school with a no-cell policy. Of course she is a 4th grader so what she needs a cell phone for in the first place is beyond me. So here is the time-line from what I can gather.
- Darling and precocious 4th grader goes to school with her cell phone provided by her mom despite the prohibition on cell phones at this school.
- During class said precocious child starts using phone to take a video, thus violating school policy and disrupting the class.
- The teacher confiscates said phone. In the process a 4th grade child bites the teacher.
- The parents of sweet young lady come to school and threaten to "get even" with the teacher who had the audacity to get bit by their innocent child.
- Teacher leaves school to get bite looked at, apparently it was a bad enough bite that she needed medical attention.
- Parents follow teacher and then attack her when she stops car. Teacher foolishly rolls down window thus inviting a perfectly justifiable brick being thrown at her.
- Teacher gets out of the car and realizes the the mother is not alone and gets attacked from behind: "'When I got out of that car,' she said, 'I didn't realize it was two other people,' she said, but she felt something hit her in the back, and it was two men."
- Mom and dad and apparently a third assailant jump into car, confident that justice has been served and that they are in no danger of repercussions.
- Momma gets arrested and employs a modified combination of the "Dindu nuffin" and "She had it coming" defenses.
A 29 year old woman decides to gather her forces and brings two men to assault a 46 year old teacher. That is smart.
Oh, and the school in question is called "Pittsburgh King PreK-8", thus proving that streets and schools named after the good "minister"/plagiarizer/serial adulterer MLK are usually dumps. It is a school clearly committed to learning and helping kids become moral, useful members of society. Actually no.
Pittsburgh King PreK-8 is a neighborhood school located in Pittsburgh's North Side community. We believe that at the heart of the transformation of Pittsburgh King is a shared commitment to and relentless pursuit of racial equity.Well by all means focus on "racial equity" instead of focusing on 4th grade kids not biting their teachers or better yet maybe emphasize the parents of 4th grade students not dragging their kid's teacher from a car or hitting them with a brick.
I don't find the behavior itself that surprising but what is so odd is that this required a fair amount of preparation. The mom came to school, threatened the teacher apparently publicly, rounded up the alleged father and another guy, waited for the teacher to leave, followed her and then assaulted her. I am sure she was seen at school, everyone knows she is the mother of this kid and she openly threatened to "get even".
At any point did she stop and think that perhaps this might not be a good idea? Did she ever contemplate what might happen a day later?
When someone does something to make me angry, two factors working together keep me from chasing that person down and throwing a brick at them. First, I was taught not to do stuff like that. It is so ingrained in me that I wouldn't even consider it because I had parents that instilled a sense of morality into me. Second, I am aware enough to realize that there would be consequences. A completely disproportionate response like this, especially after threatening the person you attacked, is going to get you arrested. This isn't like two dudes getting into a tussle and throwing some punches, this is a woman and two men stalking and attacking another woman, including throwing a brick at her which could have easily maimed or even killed her.
Clearly Dai’Shonta Williams didn't think even for a moment about what would happen next. If she had, would she have made the connection that a serious assault on a teacher by someone known to the teacher, a teacher she had threatened that same day, would lead to her arrest and almost certain conviction followed by a lengthy jail term. Did she think what would happen to her 4th grader, already an out of control and dare I say borderline feral child, if she goes to prison for 3-4 years? If her kid, probably around 9 or 10 now, is biting teachers for having her cell phone confiscated, what will she be like when she is a teen after her mom has been in prison for the prior 3-4 or more years? Assuming her dad was one of the two men that assaulted the teacher, they will also get arrested so both parents in jail? They might as well book a cell next to the mom because the daughter will be joining her soon enough. Based on her Facebook page she has at least one other baby that would be not even two years old yet. Who will take care of that little girl? How is Dai'Shonta planning on getting a job when she is about to incur a felony conviction(s)? The repercussions for my actions are a major factor in helping me to decide what to do/not do and I have never even contemplated chasing someone down and hitting them with a brick.
According to some of the news stories, Ms. Williams was under the impression that the teacher had choked her daughter. I can understand being angry but it also wasn't as if she caught the teacher in the act of choking her daughter. She was apparently relayed this information after the fact by a 4th grader. So rather than finding out what really happened and waiting a bit to get "justice", she decided instead to immediately assault the teacher on the rather dubious claim of a 4th grader. Even if the teacher had choked her daughter, the clearly correct response would be to file a police report and complaint with the school and let it take it's course but instead her response was a brick through a window and a beat down with two men helping. This is a form of time preference. For an average White, we will put off the immediate gratification (that might be wrong and carry serious repercussions) in favor of letting the system work and getting justice after finding out the facts. For blacks, and this is amply proven in academic studies of Africa versus Europe, see here for example, the instinct is to get gratification now rather than delay gratification. Waiting for the wheels of justice to work rather than hitting someone with a brick is not really different from saving some of your food for the winter months rather than eating all of your food in the summer.
What happens next is pretty clear. The mom and probably dad will go to jail for a while, some relative will take over the "care" of their children and the social pathology exhibited by the brick throwing mom and teacher biting 4th grader will just get deeper and more expensive for society as a whole. I imagine at sentencing Dai'Shonta will tearfully appeal for leniency "cuz my babies need me", something she clearly didn't give much thought to when she was chasing down the teacher. From individual cases like Dai’Shonta Williams to cities like Detroit to entire nations and a continent like Haiti and Africa, the result is typically the same. An inability to think about consequences for the future leads to stupid immediate decisions and the process is repeated over and over again.
Hopefully the teacher, also a black woman, will suffer no permanent physical effects from the assault but I can't imagine her teaching in that school in the future. If she is smart she will move to a majority White suburban school district where she can teach without worrying about getting her face smashed by a brick. As for Dai’Shonta Williams, I wonder what she is thinking now and if she realizes that her daughter made up the story about being choked and that her girls are facing years with their mom behind bars. She probably has some remorse over her actions, at least because of the consequences, but the time to ponder the consequences is before you act, not afterward.
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