Page 20 - Florida Sentinel 2-26-19

National
Walgreens Manager Helps
Mario Clark’s Death Ruled A Homicide; Family Says ‘They Already Knew’
Mario Clark as he laid in the hospital.
JACKSON, MS - The state medical examiner has ruled Mario Clark’s death as a homicide. The cause of death was strangulation and suffo- cation.
Clark was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia as a child. On February 14, he was having an schizophrenic episode, and his mother, Sheila Ragland, called po- lice seeking assistance in transporting him to the hos- pital -- but instead, she said they beat him to death.
When Clark’s family got the news Thursday after- noon, they said they already
knew that his death was caused by the beating he re- ceived at the hands of Jack- son police officers.
Tuesday night, Clark’s mother was too upset to speak on camera, so his sis- ter and girlfriend spoke for the family instead.
Clark’s girlfriend Kris- tale Bennett said they would have celebrated their one year anniversary in April.
“I just know that when you have somebody that loves you. We fought for him, and we’re going to keep on fight- ing for him,” she said.
Man Accused Of Intentionally Plowing Car Into Family Of 8, Killing Pregnant Mother
Grieving Mother, Pays For Son’s
Medication After Teen Shot
A North Carolina woman said she is grateful for a Wal- greens manager who helped her out just hours after her son had been shot.
Monday was the worst day of Emoni Hardy’s life.
That evening, she received a call that her only son had been shot.
“Just like hysterical don’t know what to do,” she said of the situation. “Didn’t know what to grab and I just ran out the door.”
Her 19-year-old son went to visit his big sister after work when he encountered an argu- ment and ended up being gunned down in the street.
Hardy couldn’t see her son immediately when she arrived at the hospital.
"Finally they let me back and he was laying in a bed with the thing on his neck,” she said. “But he was talking. He was moving. So, I was kind of at
Emoni Hardy was having the worst day imaginable. A man- ager delivered a helping hand.
ease a little bit. I didn't know if he was going to be paralyzed or anything but thank God he's fine."
Police have charged 23- year-old Destin Wilson, a convicted felon with a long criminal record, with trying to kill Hardy’s son.
Hardy and her son were al- lowed to go home so he could nurse the wounds.
On the way, she stopped at
an ATM to get cash to pay for his prescriptions.
Later at her neighborhood Walgreens, her emotions got the best of her as she broke down crying.
The staff tried to console her.
"I believe they heard me,” she said. “They heard me cry- ing, sitting there crying and then they knew that my son had got shot."
A Virginia Elementary School Made
Students Pretend To Be Runaway
Slaves During A History Lesson
Jason Mendez is accused of plowing his car into the car of a family of 8, killing Melissa Castillo DeLoatch.
administrator.
Principal David Stewart
apologized for the incident in a letter to parents on February
12.
"The lesson was culturally
insensitive to our students and families. I extend my sincerest apology to our students and school community," he wrote. He also promised the lesson would be retaught "within an appropriate and respectful context."
"Anextstepforusasa school involves the formation of an equity/culturally respon- sive team which will be com- prised of school personnel and parent representatives," Stew- art added.
Loudoun County Public Schools plans to implement changes to prevent a similar issue from happening in the fu- ture. The Loudoun Freedom Center, an organization
founded by Thomas, will help the system develop its new cur- riculum. Additionally, the county wants to form an equity taskforce.
Thomas says the Freedom Center has provided the sys- tem guidelines for teaching about slavery and other issues in the past but claims they were never used. She also said that parents have complained about past class exercises, in- cluding one in which students were allegedly told to pretend to be slaves, sharecroppers and landowners.
Virginia’s culture is under heavy scrutiny following its governor and attorney gen- eral's blackface scandals. Thomas believes local schools are partly to blame for the nor- malization of racially insensi- tive behavior that led to the officials deciding blackface was OK.
A Virginia elementary school used a disturbing game to teach its students about slav- ery.
Students at Madison's Trust Elementary School were in- structed to pretend they were runaway slaves during a gym class lesson about the Under- ground Railroad, reports NBC Washington.
Students of all races in the 3rd-5th grades participated in the exercise. Loudoun County Public Schools spokesman Wayde Byard admitted the activity occurred but said stu- dents were never explicitly called slaves.
Loudoun NAACP Chapter President Michelle Thomas begs to differ and said she re- ceived several complaints from outraged parents.
“Loudoun County has a his- tory of miseducating kids, number one, and perpetrating racist things amongst our stu- dents,” Thomas told The Loudoun Times-Mirror. “This is not the first one. This is the first one of many. This is the most egregious, and the timing is incredible.”
Thomas claims the lesson was created by teachers who were being supervised by an
MADISON'S TRUST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
A 35-year-old man is fac- ing murder and attempted murder charges after being accused of purposely running over a family of eight, twice, with his car on Wednesday, killing the mother.
Haverstraw, NY, police be- lieve that the tragic incident all started because the father told the suspect, identified as Jason Mendez, not to smoke in front of his six chil- dren while outside of a 7- Eleven in Rockland County, the New York Post reports.
Angered, police say Mendez got inside of his ve- hicle and drove into the fam-
ily, before reversing and strik- ing them a second time and driving into the 7-Eleven.
“His cigarette smoke was in the vicinity of the family and it seems to be the cata- lyst,” Haverstraw Police Capt. Martin Lund told the Post.
The 32-year-old mother, identified as Melissa Castillo DeLoatch, who was pregnant with her sev- enth child, died at the hospi- tal, ABC7NY reports. The father, 35-year-old Shawn DeLoatch, along with the three youngest children, ages 11 months, 2 and 3, were seri- ously injured.
PAGE 20 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2019