MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Booker T. Washington High School Principal Alisha Coleman-Kiner is not letting anyone criticize her murdered student without her getting the final word.
Kelly Griffin sent the principal an email Tuesday morning regarding the school’s decision to allow Myneishia Johnson‘s 1-year-old son to accept her diploma on her behalf. Griffin complained, in part:
The attitude and culture of the inner city youth need to change and doing this it won’t; you’re acknowledging and celebrating this young child whose mother was tragically killed when in all fairness probably should have been home taking care of that young infant who now has no mother and quite frankly don’t know who the father is. food for thought
Kiner responded in a Facebook post with a seven-course “appetizer, entrée, and dessert” of her own.
She addressed the claim the father is unknown, asking, “Where were you when he couldn’t stand under the grief on Sunday at the candlelight vigil?”
In response to Griffin painting Johnson as irresponsible for not staying home with her baby the night she was killed, Kiner explained how Johnson worked so hard to act responsibly in light of many obstacles she faced. Every day she came to school to take honors classes and worked a job, and she helped her younger siblings with school as well, Kiner said.
“I know a whole slew of adults who would be in an insane asylum if they had to live with one tenth of her issues.”
She also called out the email writer for stereotyping “inner city youth” as bad people and treating them like objects.
Kiner switched the focus from Myneishia’s life to the baby’s, showing how the graduation ceremony will offer him an invaluable experience to be a part of his mother’s life, something he won’t have as he grows up.
This baby has only lived one year. He will NEVER know his mother. He will only have what we have shared, the videos that have been recorded, and what people have written to begin to understand the love she had for him. We WILL add this to his treasure chest of memories.
Kiner ended the post definitively:
Stay. In. Your. Lane. This sweet baby meant too much to me for me to remain professional if I receive any more emails from judgmental folk who sit in the air looking “down” on folk they don’t deserve to sit next to. #Matthew1:7 #AlishaKiner#NotInTheMood
Read the full post here.