Jimmie Edwards, step right up and accept your award as my hero of the week. Edwards is family court judge in St. Louis. He was the subject of a five-page (including photos) story in the Oct. 10 edition of People magazine.
On a daily basis, juveniles who might be described as “knuckleheads” — the most incorrigible of the incorrigible — arrive in Edwards’ courtroom. They’re the ones doing poorly in school, getting kicked out of school, getting into fights and who, in general, make the learning process more of a chore than it has to be.
Jakayla Ivory, who was 16 when she appeared before Edwards in November of last year after stabbing a schoolmate with an ice pick, had been given the heave-ho at four schools.
With any other judge, Ivory might have been expelled from the St. Louis school system. But Edwards, 56, had another plan in mind for Ivory. Rather than expel Ivory and/or confine her to a juvenile facility, Edwards sent her to the Innovative Concept Academy, a school Edwards started “as a last resort for wayward teens,” according to the People magazine story.
Edwards has three non-negotiable rules at ICA. Each is listed in the People magazine story.
1. “No quitting: ‘As long as you’re trying, you’re succeeding,’ ” is Edwards’ motto.
2. “No loitering: Edwards wears his kids out with after-school activities,” the story says. Quoting Edwards directly, it continues, “I expect them to be so tired that they can’t do anything but go to sleep, get back up and start it all over again.”
3. “No saggy pants: Like mumbling, bad grammar and rudeness, droopy pants are big no-nos,” the story reads.
Then it gives another direct quote from Edwards: “Kids need to understand what it means to be civilized.”
The saggy-pants look is one favored by way too many rappers, and, according to the People magazine story, Edwards has a problem with at least one of them, even though he’s dead.
When Edwards learned Ivory was going to do an essay on the late Tupac Shakur, he told her, “I think Tupac Shakur has been a bad influence on a lot of kids. Are you going to put that in your report?”
Perhaps more perspicacious than Edwards realized, Ivory answered, “I’m going to write, ‘Judge Edwards said he’s a bad influence.’ ”
Heed the wisdom of the man who gave you a generous break, Ms. Ivory. Shakur has been a bad influence on a lot of kids, as have many other so-called “gangsta rappers.”
Before rap fans dismiss me as another old fuddy-duddy down on their favorite music, I have to make some full disclosure. I am also a rap fan. I’ve liked it for years. The reasons are several, but the main one is this: Rap helped kill disco. I owe rap — and rappers — a debt I can never fully repay.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t problems with the genre, especially the one called “gangsta rap.” The constant refrain we hear from gangsta rappers — “I’m a gangsta; I’m a thug; I don’t snitch” — can’t help but have a negative influence on young people.
How bad has it gotten? There’s one rapper named Rick Ross who tried to portray himself as a gangsta-turned-music artist. It transpired that he used to be a Florida corrections officer.
Being a corrections officer is considered a noble profession everywhere but in the upside-down world of gangsta rap.
You have to wonder whether rappers like Shakur and Ross (who, interestingly enough, cut a song called “Tupac (is) Back”) have an influence on the disproportionate number of young black men in jail and/or prison.
Kudos to Judge Jimmie Edwards for trying to stem that particular tide.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
