By Mansfield Frazier
Author’s Note: I’d originally written a column entitled “A Hill Worth Dying On” and turned it in to my editor, in spite of intuitively feeling the situation I was referring to would change relatively quickly — and it did. But never one to waste perfectly good words, here are my initial thoughts on the matter, and I’ve added additional ones at the end.
Well over a decade ago the State Board of Education fired a man who, by all accounts, was the best school principal in the Cleveland Municipal School District at the time. The reason for his firing? Over 20 years prior he’d gotten into a shoving match with his then significant other, and, in spite of the woman attempting to drop the nebulous charge, the incident was classified as a domestic violence incident.
So, in spite of the facts of the case — and the fact the state board had the power of discretion in the matter — the board elected to take the man’s job… his distinguished record as a teacher and administrator evidently meant nothing to them. But in the end it was the children he had been so ably mentoring and assisting that were hurt by him being forced out.
I vividly recall the outrage the community felt when this man was treated so unjustly, and the joy felt in the community when Jerry Sue Thorton, the president of Tri-C, almost immediately hired him on as an administrator at the college… something everyone felt, given the circumstances, was the right thing to do. Justice, in the end, was served.
All of which makes the current story of 39-year-old Maria Graciani, a Tri-C student who had worked for the college as a paid student ambassador (her $9 an hour job entailed assisting new students in orientating themselves to campus life, according to a PD article), all the more troubling. Graciani was recently fired from her job because she has a 16-year-old felony (for aggravated assault) on her record, an incident that stemmed from an altercation in the Flats, which — if you do the math — means she was 23-years-old when it occurred. She also had an earlier case of attempted theft she readily admits to.
While this case could and should serve as a cautionary tale for young people… warning them to be careful about what kind of alcohol-fueled negative behaviors they engage in (I’m making an assumption, but probably an accurate one, that booze was involved in Graciani’s 1996 incident) since a felony record will, in most instances, follow a person for life. But a felony record should not — given the exemplary manner in which she has conducted her life since the incident — disadvantage this woman (or anyone else, for that matter) for life.
It seemingly did not matter to school officials that the woman is well-qualified for the position she held, and, by all accounts, had performed very well in previous years; rules — evidently — are rules at Tri-C. However, no one at the school has been willing to speak to the particulars of the case, so at this point no one knows the criteria used to arrive at the seemingly wrongheaded decision that this woman is unfit for the position. In other words, what are the rules… and who’s making them?
The recent tightening of regulations (and the creation of new, more onerous ones) at Tri-C leaves me to wonder if the administration has been hoodwinked into a contract with one of those outfits that, for a fee, provide background checks and piss tests on everyone under the false umbrella of “enhanced student safety.” Or, it simply could be there’s a new vice-president on the campus that harbors far right-wing tendencies calling the shots.
But let’s go back to the original charge for a moment: Given how heavy-handed prosecutors have historically been in Cuyahoga County, Graciani might have been over-indicted to begin with… it was and is a very common practice. She now says her public defender encouraged her to take a plea deal to avoid prison time, and it could have simply been that he was overwhelmed with cases —as public defenders usually are — and wanted to move hers through the system with as few hiccups as possible.
Graciani certainly wouldn’t be the first person to have a bad plea bargain come back years later to bite them on the butt. It happens all the time. Young people, when they interact with the criminal justice system, are afraid, usually ill-advised, and simply want to get the process over with as quickly as possible. Therefore they are easy targets, especially if a prosecutor’s main interest is in increasing conviction rates… rather than increasing how well justice is dispensed.
Something tells me the ruling in Graciani’s case will be thoughtfully reconsidered and changed before too long, now that the glare of publicity (thanks to the student-run newspaper The Voice) is shedding some much-needed light and heat on the issue. The story is now being picked up by the national media. After all, the Second Chance Act was passed by Congress back in 2008, and just this year the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidelines to employers regarding better protecting the rights of formerly incarcerated persons in the workplace.
Such measures are necessary in this country to protect folks because, in addition to being the world leader in punitively (and often unnecessarily) incarcerating its own citizens, America also is far and away the world leader in attempting to lock people out of prosperity and a second chance for the remainder of their lives once they acquire a felony conviction. No place else in the world do authorities attempt to turn one conviction into a life sentence… only in America.
As Ohio State University Law Professor Michelle Alexander so eloquently wrote, felony convictions are oftentimes substituting for (and standing in as) The New Jim Crow in our nation.
But even if Graciani is made whole… even if she is given her job back, the questions still remain… who is in charge of formulating these kinds of Draconian policy decisions at Tri-C, what kind of standards are being applied, and is there an appeals process in place? How many other students have been treated just as shabbily as this woman in the past, and perhaps more importantly, how many more will be so treated in the future?
After all, this is Tri-C, which has its main campus in the middle of the hood, not some elite Ivy League university. And, while the students at Tri-C certainly deserve the same level of safety as students anywhere in the country, this institution should set an example and become a beacon to all of those who have made mistakes but are now attempting to better themselves.
By its ill treatment of Maria Graciani, the college has demonstrated it has lost its way in such matters; if they treat a 38-year-old white woman in this disgraceful manner, there’s no telling how badly they’ve been treating young black males with similar blemishes on their records. Blanket policies — which this incident is indicative of — always end up being fair to no one.
Until the school can demonstrate a sincere desire to treat those with felony convictions more justly and on a true case-by-case basis, there needs to be strong community oversight in this area of vital concern. Tri-C obviously needs guidance from an outside panel of reentry experts to assist the institution in coming to right, fair and just conclusions in regards to those who are negatively credentialed, and the community needs to demand such oversight.
Addendum: Tri-C did indeed change its position on this matter and offer Graciani her job back with an apology… but she turned the offer down, saying, “This is a big thing in my life and for many others. It’s not about the money. There are so many people there who have felonies. They need to change the policy.”
For the brave, principled and unselfish stance Maria Graciani has taken on this issue — for her courage, compassion and willingness to fight for fairness for her fellow students, I hereby name her “Saint Maria”. She well deserves the honorific.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.