Clueless

Lower Manhattanite at Group News Blog did a follow-up post on the Jena 6 and at the end mentioned that the White tree had been cut down.

Sure enough The News Star [Monroe, LA] reported Jena High’s infamous ‘noose’ tree cut down

“A clean slate,” LaSalle Parish School Board member Billy Fowler said of why the tree was cut down in the past few weeks. “There’s nothing positive about that old tree. It’s all negative. And I’m serving on the new School Board, and we’re wanting to start fresh on some things.”

Schools Superintendent Roy Breithaupt authorized the tree to be cut down, Fowler said. Breithaupt on Monday refused to comment about the tree while discussing plans for rebuilding the school after an arson fire destroyed one the school’s buildings.

In a comment to the story an individual calling themselves “Bayoubaby” wrote:

“so, the ” noose” tree was cut down but whats going to stop people from using the wood to make buring crosses…..nothing the fact of the matter is that racism is in Jena and in full force and it very saddening to think that even in the year 2007 this situation is so prevalent and to add insult to injury its not like louisiana isnt the punch line to every joke pretaining to corruption and the instability of our ” great” elected officials. its really sucks to take have to take sides on this situation but what even sucks even more its that this incident will forever be another posterchild for the instability of our state.”

The very first thought I had when I read Lower Manhattanite’s piece was that the Klan would turn it into a burning cross. That is a part of Southern history that won’t go away, no matter how much people deny it. The principal at the high school knew there was a major problem and expelled the students who had hung up the nooses, but was overruled by the school board and superintendent.

A noose is a threat in the South, not a prank. Cutting down the tree solves nothing. The school board and superintendent think the problem will just go away if they ignore it – it will just fester. With all of the problems Louisiana has, it doesn’t need this. Thousands of people went to Jena. What makes the school board think they won’t come back if things don’t get better?