вЂњWhat in the world?вЂќ he thought, when he learned what these arrests were about. Williams, who is Black, had been a Murfreesboro cop for five years. In the assistant principalвЂ™s office at Hobgood, the officer telling Garrett notВ to get the kids was Chris Williams. Reports compiled from the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts (The graphic below shows the top 50 courts.) The state stopped publishing this data even as it figured prominently in a lawsuit against Rutherford County. Rutherford County locked up kids in 48% of its cases, eclipsing every other jurisdiction. For the last year available, 2014, we compiled reports for all 98 courts. Tennessee used to publish statistical reports on juvenile courts statewide. Rutherford County Locked Up Kids in Almost Half of Cases The judge was proud of what she had helped build, despite some alarming numbers buried in state reports.ДЄmong cases referred to juvenile court, the statewide average for how often children were locked up was 5%. In Rutherford County, a juvenile court judge had been directing police on what she called вЂњour processвЂќ for arresting children, and she appointed the jailer, who employed a вЂњfilter systemвЂќ to determine which children to hold. There, she waited for the kids to be brought to her. Instead of going to Hobgood, Templeton had spent the afternoon gathering the petitions, then heading to the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center, a two-tiered jail for children with dozens of surveillance cameras, 48 cells and 64 beds. Garrett even texted her - вЂњHowвЂ™s timing?вЂќ - but got no answer. She had also told Garrett there would be no handcuffs, that police would be discreet. She had assured the principal she would be there. He wanted nothing to do with it, so he complained of chest pains and went home, with no warning to his fill-in about what was in store.ДЄlso absent was the police officer who had investigated the video and instigated these arrests, Chrystal Templeton. The thought of arresting these children caused him such stress that he feared he might cry in front of them. A police officer regularly assigned to Hobgood, who knew the students and staff, had bailed that morning after learning about the planned arrests. The confusion at Hobgood - one officer saying this, another saying that - could be traced in part to absence. Stop, Tay-Tay.вЂќ She was a fourth grader at Hobgood. What was clear were the voices, including that of one girl trying to break up the fight, saying: вЂњStop, Tay-Tay. Officers were now rounding up kids, even though the department couldnвЂ™t identify a single one in the video, which was posted with a filter that made faces fuzzy. The police in Murfreesboro, a fast-growing city about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, had secured juvenile petitions for 10 children in all who were accused of failing to stop the fight. They were here for the children who looked on. But they hadnвЂ™t come for the boys who threw punches. The police were at Hobgood because of that video. Screenshots from a heavily filtered video, originally posted to YouTube, showing a scuffle among small children that took place off school grounds.В Credit: Screenshots by ProPublica One kid insulted another kidвЂ™s mother, is what started it all. The scuffle took place off school grounds, after a game of pickup basketball. It showed two small boys, 5 and 6 years old, throwing feeble punches at a larger boy as he walked away, while other kids tagged along, some yelling. On this sunny Friday afternoon in spring, she wore her hair in pigtails.ДЄ few weeks before, a video had appeared on YouTube. There was a sixth grader, two fourth graders and a third grader.

The names police had given the principal included four girls, now sitting in classrooms throughout the school. Garrett knew the police had been sent to arrest some children, although exactly which children, it would turn out, was unclear to everyone, even to these officers. The third officer wasnвЂ™t saying anything. A second officer was telling her: DonвЂ™t go get the kids. One officer, wearing a tactical vest, was telling her: Go get the kids. Three police officers were crowded into the assistant principalвЂ™s office at Hobgood Elementary School, and Tammy Garrett, the schoolвЂ™s principal, had no idea what to do. Chapter 1: вЂњWhat in the World?вЂќДЇriday, April 15, 2016: Hobgood Elementary School, Murfreesboro, Tennessee This article was produced in partnership with ProPublicaВ for its Local Reporting Network. She said kids must face consequences, which rarely seem to apply to her or the other adults in charge. Judge Donna Scott Davenport oversees a juvenile justice system in Rutherford County, Tennessee, with a staggering history of jailing children.

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