Prior To The Incident
Ms. Cotton had several disciplinary writeups while a student at Paris ISD prior to the incident. Some allege that some of the writeups before the incident were in retaliation for her mother Creola Cotton and Brenda Cherry, who were co-founders of a civil rights organization called Concerned Citizens For Racial Equality, filing civil rights complaints against the school district on numerous occasions, and that the writeups increased dramatically after the incident.
At Cotton's trial "a half-dozen or so teachers — mostly white and two blacks" testified about her past disciplinary problems. One teacher described her as someone who was "openly defiant" and "generally did not follow rules." Teacher Michael Johnson, an African-American testified that Cotton threatened another teacher, saying "I’m going to bust her in the nose." Teacher Althea Dixon, also an African-American, testified that she had handled only two problems, one being a skirt that was an inch too short and the other being Cotton pouring too much paint into a styrofoam cup. The majority of the writeups were for minor things such as tardiness but were used as prior offenses at trial.
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