How America Criminalizes Black Youth

The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth by Kristin

Henning-Book discussion- Thursday, October 29, 2026.

Over the past few months, we have learned about the Omaha Police Department and

Omaha Public Schools, and the controversy over shock gloves used against students.

This book outlines the problems and why educational regimes have played an integral

role in the public school system across the country. The Omaha Police Department

illustrates miscommunication through emails and the school districts cover-up of its tacit

agreement on the shock-glove issue. It’s apparent we have lazy folks working in the

district.

Cid Kelley, a teacher in the school system, community worker in various nonprofits,

gardener, and North Omaha resident, will outline the book’s salient points with A’Jamal

Byndon, Chairman of MORE.

A’Jamal Byndon has taught race diversity, African American Family Course, and Black

Studies and Public Policy courses for over 30 years as an adjunct at Metropolitan

Community College, Nebraska Methodist College, and the University of Nebraska, and

has seen many students who were victims of the trauma of being African American in

racist educational systems.

We will use salient points in the book outlining how the educational system creates the

school-to-prison pipeline and why many parents homeschool their students or place

them into private schools because of little to no accountability of SROs, long-term

academic achievement for African American students, and collaboration by schools to

have police officers play the meanest roles in the criminalization of Black Students. Yes,

a system that has a disproportionate number of students in Douglas County “Kitty Jails,”

to a prison system that offers apartheid services, illustrates why this book should be

mandatory reading in dysfunctional teacher training institutions that send in poorly

trained teachers who lack the skills to deal with racism, historical segregation, and much

more. Henning (2021), a law professor, documents so-called community policing and

how police oversaturate the African American community, bullying many students and

putting too many in the gang database, and reap inordinate government funds for

blaming innocent associates or relatives for trivial issues.

The book outlines programs and ideas that can reverse those disparities by treating

students as potential contributors to their communities instead of cannon fodder for the

Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare system and, ultimately, the Prison-Industrial

Complex. With the Omaha Police Department's income growth over the past few years,

some question why those SRO million-dollar contracts shouldn't come from a

mismanaged school budget in the red because of historical malfeasance by

incompetent leadership. The Omaha Police Department should have its SRO read the

book and help reverse arrests for noncriminal student behavior. We invite the public and

officials in the Nebraska Department of Education to join this book discussion to help

reverse the current state of the poor education system. You can find this book at most

places that sell or lend books to the reading public.