MAP: Student poverty higher in rural areas
This map by EdBuild.org highlights how rural school districts in South Carolina have higher rates of children living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. “They’re living in areas where need and disadvantage are all they ever see,” the organization said. Across the country, there are 495 school districts — those colored red — where student poverty rates are more than 40 percent. In South Carolina, those rates are found in Allendale (52.8%), Bamberg 2 (45.6%), Clarendon 1 (41.8%), Williamsburg (43.5%), Marion 10 (48.8%)and Dillon 4 (40.6.8%), according to the organization.
NEWSHate crimes bill may get good look in January
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher
JULY 31, 2015 | People motivated by hate or prejudice to act criminally against those who are different may face a felony charge if a state hate crimes bill becomes law.
South Carolina is one of five states nationally that does not protect people from hateful acts done because of race, religion, skin color, sex, age, national origin or sexual orientation. There is a federal hate crimes law, which was used last week to add 33 federal charges against Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old man accused of slaughtering nine churchgoers in Charleston on June 17.
In January, S.C. Reps. Seth Whipper and Robert Brown, Democrats from Charleston, introduced a measure to create a felony for anyone who injures or destroys property “with the intent to assault, intimidate, or threaten a person because of his race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, or sexual orientation.” [H. 3404]. As drafted, the measure would carry a fine of $2,000 to $10,000 or imprisonment from two to 15 years, or both.
Since being introduced, it has been dormant on the House Judiciary Committee’s calendar. But with the attention to hate crimes after Roof’s arrest and to South Carolina’s history of race relations as the Confederate flag was removed from the Statehouse grounds, Whipper said he believed there may be support for moving forward with hate crimes legislation.
“It’s still alive and can get done in one legislative session with the right kind of support,” he said, adding that he would be looking for co-sponsors from both parties in the months ahead. “If you start talking about meaningful, substantive and measureable change, passing the hate crimes bill would be one way to do that.”
Why the state should pass the bill
“We need a hate crimes bill,” said Whipper, a North Charleston lawyer who once served as a county magistrate. “What criminal laws do is hopefully discourage certain criminal behavior. They also establish community values.
“What we’re saying with the hate crimes bill is there is certain behavior that is abhorrent and repugnant and we think it deserves special attention from the criminal justice system.”
As drafted, the bill would give prosecutors an additional charge for instances when people act out of hate or because someone is different — just because they are different, he said.
“If the person’s civil rights become an issue or if you are attacking them because they’re different from you … you get extra punishment.”
Whipper emphasized that a state hate crimes bill is needed for criminal acts beyond murder, from burning crosses in people’s yards to damaging property to making threatening or intimidating phone calls because of someone’s race or agenda.
“These crimes happen in a way they shouldn’t be tolerated … and they should be punished for what they are and stop them from creating a tolerance for dehumanizing people. You shouldn’t have to have a kidnapping with a murder if it’s race-based to take it to the next level of punishment.”
Why the bill may not be needed
State Sen. Larry Martin, a Pickens County Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was looking forward to debate on any hate crimes bill that is in the Senate. No bill has been introduced, but such a measure would be considered if approved by the House.
But he wondered if special legislation were needed with all of the current laws on the books.
“Judges have pretty wide latitude to express the outrage of society, especially if nothing more than putrid hatred drove the crime,” he said.
Having a hate crimes bill in the state would be an easy issue if it were for the kind of crimes that Roof is charged with, Martin said, adding, “I don’t know how much more outrage society can provide for the crime than our capital punishment law.”
But the American legal system demands that justice be fair — as if it were blindfolded so it could remain neutral.
“That’s an aspect of the judicial system that I think the folks who are crying out for the hate crimes law, if you think about it, are somewhat requesting Lady Justice to take that blindfold off,” Martin said. “I just don’t know. I want to hear the arguments.”
He added that he had no interest in being the only state in the nation to have no hate crimes law.
“We’ll look at it but I do have some very genuine concerns that you do it in a way other than making statement,” he said. “The code of laws is full of ample law to prosecute on behalf of practically any victim of a crime and judges to have significant latitude in how they impose sentences.”
Even the American Civil Liberties Union, a longtime supporter of civil rights legislation, struggles a bit with hate crimes legislation. There’s a delicate balance that must protect First Amendment rights of free speech and association from “guilt by association,” a spokesman said.
“For the ACLU, there needs to be a clear and direct connection between speech/association and the crime.”
What’s next
During the June special session which led to the General Assembly voting to take down the Confederate flag, an effort to allow lawmakers to talk about hate crimes was tabled.
But the flag vote showed there was real interest in doing the right thing, Whipper said, adding that momentum might propel the hate crimes proposal forward in the House next year.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Pinckney family announces foundation
The family of the late state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, one of the victims of the Charleston church shooting on June 17, on Thursday established a charitable foundation to continue his work on what would have been his 42nd birthday.
“While the shock has started to dissipate, we are still in a state of deep grief,” said Jennifer Pinckney, the late senator’s wife and new chair of the Honorable Reverend Clementa C. Pinckney Foundation. “But, we are answering God’s call to continue my husband’s work and that starts with establishing a charitable foundation in his honor.”
State Sen. Gerald Malloy, a Hartsville Democrat involved with establishing the foundation, added, “We are reaching out to those who have been raising money in Clem’s name in order to consolidate efforts,. And on his birthday, we are thankful for your generous support as we begin to build a foundation that will become part of the Senator’s legacy.”
The mission of the Honorable Reverend Clementa C. Pinckney Foundation is to improve the quality of life for all South Carolina citizens by supporting religious, educational and charitable causes Pinckney supported while serving as a leader in his church, community and the state Senate. More: www.senatorpinckney.org.
State media asleep at the wheel?
Corey Hutchins, a former Statehouse Report contributor who now keeps an eye on what’s happening in South Carolina for the Columbia Journalism Review, offered a story this week about how the state’s biggest political news story before the Charleston killings has been getting little attention lately.
That’s the saga of the downfall of powerful House Speaker Bobby Harrell for illegally using campaign funds. Writes Hutchins: “Bottom line: The Harrell saga was a big deal, and it set an expectation for further revelations about other potential corruption in state government. But in the ensuing months after the former House Speaker disappeared from political life, followups seemed to largely fade from mainstream news coverage.”
He heaped praise on The Nerve, a publication of the S. C. Policy Council, for being vigilant as traditional media slumbered. “I think this story just raises a very important question: Is there any will left in this state to root out corruption in the Statehouse?” Nerve reporter Rick Brundrett told Hutchins. “I think that’s the biggest question coming out of this.”
COMMENTARYTime to deal with the elephant in the state’s room
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher
JULY 31, 2015 | Removing the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds doesn’t confront something lurking in rooms across South Carolina for generations — the elephant of racial division.
So that made us wonder — how can the state move forward to reconcile and heal generations of slights, violence, fear, prejudice and deaths? What can be done to level the playing field, to thwart dreams lost because of skin color or poverty?
“Using any measure, the prospects of success for an affluent white baby born today in South Carolina are significantly higher than those of a baby whose skin color is not white and whose parents are poor,” says Steve Skardon, head of the Palmetto Project. “The causes of this discrepancy have little to do with white children working harder than others, parents being better providers or growing up in a culture with stronger or better values. In many ways, these differences are systemic, and those in charge of the system are blind to their consequences.”
Ideas from a cross-section of leaders on how to foster healing range from improving schools and expanding Medicaid access for poor South Carolinians to engaging voters and promoting more economic development in counties with large populations of people of color. But just about everyone agrees we need to communicate better.
“Now that we have demonstrated that we can all talk to each other and politics can be put aside, the best thing we can all do is engage in meaningful, factual conversations about how we can move other issues that have caused a divide in our communities,” observed Sue Berkowitz, director of the S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center.
Such tough, systematic conversations have been avoided for generations, says Columbia filmmaker Bud Ferillo: “We were all born into a segregated, alienated society but we do not have to die in one.”
An Upstate conservative noted the flag could no longer be an excuse and would force citizens to deal with unpleasant truths, such as black-on-black crime. “One of the reasons I’m glad it’s down is that the flag was used to stop unpleasant conversations,” he said.
The United Way of South Carolina’s Tim Ervolina added: “The truth needs to be spoken in love, in the realization that most Southerners never saw themselves as complicit in a horrible crime against humanity [the Civil War] — and they have spent a century and half denying it. We cannot heal this nation without love and forgiveness. Nor can we heal it without the truth.”
Other ideas:
Be kinder. Charleston Realtor Charles Smith suggests something that doesn’t cost a dime or require a public policy change. “When you pass within a few feet of someone who is obviously different than you are, be intentional about looking the person straight in the face, smiling and saying hello,” he said. “Many of us grew up in the South during a time when white people were taught not to acknowledge black people and black people were taught not to look a white person in the face.”
Involve churches, colleges. One South Carolina mayor suggested churches and colleges embrace reconciliation as an ongoing task. “I hope that churches will meet and discuss how we can apply Christ’s teaching in our daily lives—like the Emanuel [AME Church] family.”
Diversify leadership. Novelist Andra Watkins of Charleston noted generations of patriarchal state leadership where only one woman serves in the Senate. “I hope to see more women elected to South Carolina offices and appointed to South Carolina boards and commissions.”
Come to terms with history. Clemson economist Holley Ulbrich said the history of all South Carolinians should be preserved, not just for white males. “Perhaps we can then move on to dealing with one important legacy of racism, which is not wanting to do anything that benefits ‘them’ (i.e., African-Americans). That attitude has been a serious obstacle to improving the quality of life in South Carolina for whites and blacks in everything from high incarceration rates for African Americans to poor schools in predominantly minority school districts to refusing Medicaid expansion.”
South Carolinians need to break down generational barriers. As I tell my daughters, we’ve all got red blood running through our veins.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to feedback@statehousereport.com.
IN THE SPOTLIGHTAT&T
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. Today’s featured underwriter is AT&T Inc
AT&T Inc. is a premier communications holding company whose subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s largest 4G network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile Internet, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T │DIRECTV brands.
- For more information, go to http://www.att.com .
Get facts straight on sex ed curriculum
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared in our sister publication, Charleston Currents. While it highlights a sex ed curriculum being considered in Charleston County, the article contains a lot of information that debunks myths and misinformation that has been spread about the issue. We hope it is helpful.
By April L. Borkman
JULY 31, 2015 | Almost 20 percent of South Carolina middle school students have had sexual intercourse, according to the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey This number only continues to increase as students enter and attend high school with 57 percent of high school students reporting being sexually experienced. While we have made abundant strides in reducing teen pregnancy rates in South Carolina over the past 20 years, South Carolina still ranks 11th for teen pregnancy nationally.
On Aug. 4, members of the Charleston County School Board’s Secondary Education Committee (SEC) will vote on a new sex education curriculum, which is called “Making Proud Choices” (MPC). It is an evidence-based, proven, effective and comprehensive sex education curriculum. The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Adolescent Health has placed it on their list of recommended teen pregnancy prevention programs. If approved, MPC will provide the only comprehensive sex education choice for middle schools in the county.
MPC stresses that abstinence is the safest and best way to prevent HIV, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unwanted pregnancy. But it also acknowledges that if a person is sexually active, condoms are important. The committee will be voting to allow this program as an option for students in grades 8 to 12 in Charleston County public schools effective for the 2015-2016 academic school year.
Unfortunately, a small, fear-mongering, vocal group of abstinence-only-until-marriage supporters and members of other extreme conservative groups have bombarded school board members with a plethora of inaccuracies to try to block this program from being allowed in Charleston County schools. For example, West Of contributor John Steinberger this month wrongly made several erroneous claims, including that:
- Planned Parenthood backs MPC;
- The curriculum depicts “graphic sex acts;”
- It “is not medically accurate” because it teaches that condoms protect against STDs, HIV and unwanted pregnancy;
- MPC “sanitizes abortion as ‘a safe and legal way to end pregnancy; ’”
- That parents have no say in what kids are taught at their particular schools.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Even a cursory review of the curriculum reveals that none of this is true. In no way does the program depict graphic sexual acts, nor does it mention abortion on any of its pages or accompanying materials and videos. Planned Parenthood in not listed in any of the materials nor is the group mentioned as having provided any intellectual or financial contributions leading to the development of the curriculum.
Furthermore, opponents of MPC are wrong to suggest the curriculum is inaccurate regarding the teaching of condom use. An abundance of doctors and medical professionals would line up around the corner to say condom use stems STDs and prevents pregnancies. In fact during the last SEC meeting, many did. Condoms have been used as a method of contraception and disease prevention for centuries, and according to a famous 1987 statement by U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, condoms reduced transmission of HIV significantly. A1992 analysis found condoms reduced HIV transmission by 69 percent (Weller, 1993). Additionally when used correctly, (something that MPC stresses) condoms are 98 percent effective at preventing unwanted pregnancies (Advocates For Youth, 2005).
Additionally, parents do indeed have a say in what is taught to their kids. Per the S.C. Comprehensive Sex Education Act, schools are required to send letters home prior to the start of any sex education program. As a result parents may make arrangements to view the curriculum material in advance and opt their kids out of the program if they choose. The MPC program would be no different.
At the request of the SEC, health education professionals have adapted the program materials. Professionals from South Carolina made changes carefully and judiciously to remove any reference that might be construed as promoting sexually activity among young people and replace it with alternate language or activities that promote the message of abstinence and the importance of condom use for those who become sexually active.
Finally, according to the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 83 percent of South Carolinians support evidence-based sex education. Parents should feel confident that the Making Proud Choices program will provide much-needed information to their kids so that they can make educated and informed decisions about their health and their future.
April L. Borkman is a professional health educator and program coordinator working for the EMPOWERR Program at the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is an officer for the Charleston County Teen Pregnancy Prevention Council and has 10 years of experience working in HIV and teen pregnancy prevention.
FEEDBACKNo more
To the editor:
Thank you for your article. You are right – gun deaths won’t change until enough of us stand up and say ‘No More’.
— Monica Rockwell, Anderson, S.C.
Find out the real number on transportation funding
To the editor:
Thanks to you and Bill [Davis] for covering the transportation funding issue. I would respectfully suggest that you look more carefully at the underlying data instead of adopting the DOT’s inflated projection for “bringing state roads up to a good standard.”
The DOT figure, an additional $1.3 or $1.4 billion dollars a year over 30 years, is the sum total of every project conceived in every county in the state, including shameless political boondoggles like I-73 and S.C. Highway 51 to Pamplico. The problem is that no one knows what the [real] number is. DOT has not provided an adequate breakdown of the maintenance and repair versus new capacity versus boondoggles.
That should be the first requirement for giving them an additional dollar of tax revenue. The second is that they all, including the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank, submit to a rigorous prioritization of all projects, including new construction. New construction is not included under Act 114.
Finally, they need to change the model to one of fixing the existing system first. And they need to pay attention to modes other than highways. Transit, bicycle, pedestrian and land-use measures are a joke or nonexistent in South Carolina.
Unless the media, including Statehouse Report, take the time to understand the underlying figures, we will continue to waste billions of public dollars on projects that are unnecessary or damaging, at the expense of repairing and maintaining our existing highway system.
— Dana Beach, Charleston, S.C.
Send us a letter. We love hearing from our readers and encourage you to share your opinions. Letters to the editor are published weekly. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. We generally publish all comments about South Carolina politics or policy issues, unless they are libelous or unnecessarily inflammatory. One submission is allowed per month. Submission of a comment grants permission to us to reprint. Comments are limited to 250 words or less. Please include your name and contact information.
- Send your letters to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Where credit is due
“Real courage takes place when it’s hard to do something. [Charleston leaders] Dot Scott and the Rev. Joseph Darby are true heroes in our community. There are no awards for them. We won’t see them in Congress next year. I’m sure they’ll still be here among us, telling us things we need to know even when it makes us uncomfortable. Let’s listen to them in the future.”
— Sharon Fratepietro of Charleston in a letter to The Post and Courier on how Scott and Darby’s longtime calls for removing the Confederate flag from the Statehouse ground shows real leadership, as opposed to some who did so when it was “politically safe to do so.” Full letter.
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIAThe Rev. Joseph A. DeLaine
S.C. Encyclopedia | Clergyman and civil rights activist Joseph Armstrong DeLaine was born on July 2, 1898, near Manning, one of thirteen children born to Henry Charles DeLaine and Tisbia Gamble. He was raised primarily in the Manning area but spent some time in the nearby Summerton community while his father pastored the Liberty Hill AME Church. After completing high school in Manning, DeLaine attended Allen University in Columbia, earning tuition money by working as a laborer.
Completing his A.B. degree in 1931, DeLaine entered Allen University’s Dickerson Seminary to pursue a bachelor of divinity degree. He preached as opportunities arose and worked for his brothers in various construction trades. Also during 1931, DeLaine was called to pastor Stover’s Chapel in Columbia. There he met a dynamic young woman named Mattie Belton. They were married on Nov. 12, 1931, forming a union of shared beliefs, commitments, and activism. The couple had three children.
After graduation and a series of teaching and pastoral positions, DeLaine accepted an appointment from the AME Church as pastor of the Spring Hill Church in Clarendon County. He assumed a teacher’s position at Bob Johnson School near Davis Station between Manning and Summerton. Mattie DeLaine became a teacher at the Spring Hill Community School.
During his tenure at Bob Johnson School, the lack of buses and the terrible school facilities began to weigh heavily on DeLaine. He knew that black students were at a tremendous disadvantage in their learning environment. These feelings led to the first case challenging the lack of school buses for African American children, filed on March 16, 1948, in federal court. After the case was dismissed on a technicality, DeLaine, with the encouragement of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and its chief legal counsel, Thurgood Marshall, persuaded 20 Clarendon County parents to sign a new lawsuit requesting equal educational facilities.
That suit, Briggs v. Elliott, challenged the constitutionality of segregation and was heard in arguments before a federal district court in Charleston in May 1951. Not surprisingly, a three-judge panel decided two-to-one against the defendants (Judge J. Waties Waring cast the dissenting vote). However, the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was one of the five cases constituting the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision on May 17, 1954, which marked the beginning of the end of legal segregation in American public schools and society.
For his actions, DeLaine became the target of a series of hate crimes. He and his wife lost their jobs, and white merchants cut off their credit. The AME Church transferred DeLaine to Lake City early in 1951, and his home in Summerton was destroyed by fire the following October. After a series of night-rider attacks on their Lake City home, DeLaine responded in kind with gunfire on Oct. 10, 1955. After the incident, a warrant for “Assault and Battery with Intent to Kill” was issued against DeLaine. Forced to leave his native state, he later wrote the FBI that he fled South Carolina, “Not to escape justice, but to escape injustice.” The warrant remained in effect for the remainder of DeLaine’s life and was not dropped until Oct. 10, 2000. Never able to return to South Carolina, DeLaine lived the remainder of his life in New York and North Carolina. He died on Aug. 3, 1974, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
– Excerpted from the entry by Sonny DuBose. To read more about this or 2,000 other entries about South Carolina, check out The South Carolina Encyclopedia by USC Press. (Information used by permission.)
CREDITSEditor and Publisher: Andy Brack
Senior Editor: Bill Davis
Contributing Photographers: Michael Kaynard, Linda W. Brown
Phone: 843.670.3996
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!