On Sept. 18, Pleajhai Mervin, was celebrating a friend’s birthday on the campus of Knight High School in Palmdale, Calif. Palmdale is located about 60 miles north of Los Angeles in an increasingly multinational area, but with a legacy of white supremacy.
Mervin, 16, had no idea she was soon to become yet another victim of racist violence and excessive force.
Mervin’s apparent crime, which led to her expulsion from school and arrest on suspicion of battery, was accidentally dropping a piece of cake on the floor.
In an interview with Fox 11 News, Mervin said that she was told to pick up the cake by a school guard, which she immediately did. But the clean-up by Mervin did not meet the standards of that particular guard and she ended up cleaning up the spill two additional times.
On her way to class, Mervin was followed and called out again by the same security guard. Before she knew it, she found herself face-down on a table with her arms twisted behind her back.
A fellow student managed to capture the actions of the school guard on his cell phone video camera. According to Mervin, the security guard then tackled the student taking the video. During the altercation, two other students came to the aid of Mervin. They were suspended and also booked on suspicion of battery.
According to Mervin, the security guard shouted “hold still, nappy head” during the one-sided scuffle. The security guard’s excessive force left Mervin with a broken wrist.
LaTrisha Majors, Mervin’s mother, went immediately to school officials to demand an explanation of the incident. Majors ended up getting arrested herself and charged with allegedly assaulting a school staff member. She spent the night in jail. Majors, who works in a different school district in Palmdale, was suspended from her job without pay. She has denied any wrongdoing and has pledged to fight the charge.
Although three students were students were suspended, and four people were arrested on account of the accidental spilling of a piece of cake, the security guard has not been fired. Instead, the guard—who has been accused of using racial slurs in the past—remains on administrative leave. Previous complaints against the guard fell on deaf ears; the administration never took any action against the school guard.
The Palmdale community rallied behind the students and Majors with a large protest outside Knight High school on Sept. 28.
Progressive people need to rally to the cause of the arrested students and parent, now collectively known as the Palmdale Four.
Fire the racist security guard and all those who used excessive force on the students! Drop the charges on the Palmdale Four!
