This Sunday's Paper...

"Sixteen-year-old Bonnie C********* is the tiniest, prettiest, saddest defendant in Cobb County Drug Treatment Court."


So began Sunday's front-page AJC article about this drug court that works with drug-addicted teens and their families to get them on the right track. Because Bonnie, who makes good grades and is loved by all the other kids' parents, has fallen victim to alcohol abuses, it's obvious that "anyone can fall into the substance abuse trap."

Bonnie is in a blue inmate jumpsuit but she's never shown in it--all photographs accompanying the article are of "tin[y], prett[y]" Bonnie smiling or sitting with her dad.Most of the kids who come to this drug court are from affluent east and west Cobb County schools, like the Walton High School "Miss Bonnie" is from. Even with her lies and alcohol addiction, Bonnie is still allowed to drive her Eclipse ("just to work"). The article alludes to her parents' arguing, saying that ",[t]he arguments and door-slamming might not have been rougher than what many kids experience, . . . But the probably took a toll on Bonnie." It's implied that this is probably why she started drinking at age 12 and why we should all give her a break. She's so tiny and pretty and sad because she's in court . . . again.

"When Bonnie appears in court [after being taken to youth detention 3 times] her streak of sober days is only 14, but no one thinks Bonnie is starting at square one.

The 350 clean days before the beer pong game had to mean something."

The Drug Court is "part rehab and counseling, part punishment." It takes kids who've had at least 2 incidents with drugs but doesn't accept violent offenders, kids with gang ties or big-time dealers. "Those go to Juvenile or Supreme Court." In other words, Miss Bonnie can continue to come to this court after repeated offenses and lies to the judge--that is, until she runs someone over at the wheel of her Eclipse after another beer pong game--but kids who don't have her parents' affluence or her good grades, kids who also need help (albeit calling for more effort) don't get access to this program. They do not get to pass Go.

This is the real story--to me. Why aren't other kids who are in "difficult" situations, caught up in gangs (and who, given the right direction and counseling, could change their lives), helped by such a program? Why aren't they portrayed in the media with the same compassion (not condescension) as Miss Bonnie? Why are they seen in newspaper photos in their inmate jumpsuits and sometimes handcuffs and ankle shackles? What aren't they seen as kids who still have time for redemption?

I cannot help but think if Miss Bonnie were Miss Bonisha from Clayton County this story would have a totally different slant. I don't rant about this because of a lack of compassion for addicts. I blogged about it because while reading the article it was so blatant --"it" being the huge discrepancy in the way brown people are portrayed in the media and the attempts to brainwash us into instant and unquestioning empathy for people who look like Miss Bonnie as opposed to a ready suspicion of folk who look like this



. . . if they made it to the front page at all.