Most children aren’t afraid of getting into trouble at school; they are afraid of the trouble they will get into at home for getting into trouble at school. Teachers refer to some parents as “problem parents.” These are parents who refuse to believe their children can ever be at fault. They take the position that everyone—administrators, teachers and other students—who say their child was in the wrong must be lying. If their child repeatedly gets into trouble, then it’s because they are being picked on.

Before Shaquanda went to trial, the district attorney’s office offered a plea bargain reduction from felony to misdemeanor assault and two years juvenile probation. Her mother and defense attorney turned it down. She was tried and adjudicated as delinquent. The defense asked the judge rather than a jury to set punishment. Texas law allows judges to release juveniles to their families, provided family members provide verbal assurances that they will do their best to ensure the juvenile meets the provision of the parole by staying out of trouble. The judge offered to release Shaquanda to her mother, but her mother refused to provide the verbal assurances required by law. She took the stance that her daughter had done nothing wrong and should not have to abide by provisions of parole. Therefore, the judge turned Shaquanda over to the Texas Youth Commission. She was placed in a juvenile detention facility for an indeterminate period, lasting a long as it would take her to complete the commission’s behavior modification program. The minimum time required to complete the program is nine month. Due to some minor rule infractions, Shaquanda spent about 12 months before being released.

The Paris white girl who burned her own house accepted a plea bargain and was released on parole to her family. Her family, unlike Shaquanda’s mother, provided the required assurances required by law that they would do their best to ensure that their daughter complied with the parole provisions. A manic depressive with a history of suicide attempts and self-mutilation, the girl soon violated her parole and was sentenced to the same juvenile detention facility as Shaquanda Cotton. Once there, the girl became one of several girls sexually molested by a prison guard in a case that became a major scandal. A victim of multiple rapes and the focus of a major scandal, she remains in the juvenile detention cneter.