For thousands of parents, the back-to-school fanfare serves as a painful reminder of the loss of children to state-sanctioned violence and oppression.
As families across the U.S. are sending their kids back to school, social media platforms are blowing up with parents’ proud photos of their children entering a new grade. Celebrations like back-to-school picnics, homecoming games and school supply shopping mark this societal rite of passage as symbols of growth, change and the passage of time.
I see holidays come and go — Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, New Year’s Eve — without my son, Robert Ornelas. For me, “back to school” especially drives home the fact that, since he was just the age of many high school seniors who are preparing for their transition into adulthood, my son has been forced to watch life through the news, from behind bars. It’s a nightmare I live with. I sleep with it. I eat with it.
Because of what I and many loved ones have witnessed as the state’s use of COVID regulations as a strategy for barring us from visiting our incarcerated loved ones in prison, I can no longer see my son Robert. I understand the dangers of COVID, but the restrictions are profoundly unfair, especially as the rest of the city, state and country are operating as if the pandemic is over.
In 1990, when he was barely 18 years old, Robert was arrested for allegedly committing a double homicide. I do not believe the charges. Police beatings, a form of torture, were used to obtain his false confession — a traumatic and terrifying scenario that is reality for too many marginalized people and their parents in the U.S. Our family has been through an ordeal I would wish on no family.
Did my son struggle with drugs and gang involvement as he was growing up? Yes. But that doesn’t mean that he is guilty of whatever the police decide to accuse him of. In order to obtain Robert’s signature on their false confession, the police beat him and eventually convinced Robert to say that he committed the murders in self-defense.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Comfort Dogs Are Greeting Uvalde Students On Their First Day Back to SchoolThe Uvalde school district invited back Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry to help ease anxiety and fear as students went back to school.
Read more »
Man accused of shoving gun down man’s mouth during robbery now behind barsA career criminal back behind bars Wednesday night after accused of pistol-whipping a man in broad daylight in mobile’s entertainment district.
Read more »
Back To School: NYC Catholic schools welcome students back Wednesday, public schools start ThursdaySchool officials say all Catholic schools in New York City will continue to operate with full in-person instruction.
Read more »
Netflix is resurrecting the Teletubbies with a new seriesDon’t be alarmed, but Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po are coming back.
Read more »
Seattle schools closed for second day in a row amid teachers strikeSEATTLE — The largest school district in Washington state did not welcome students back for the second day in a row after its educators' union went on strike.
Read more »