Eighty-year-old Lynn McFarland was arrested and carried out of a Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee meeting at the Tennessee State Capitol on April 1 after the group passed a bill that would give power to local school boards to deny enrollment to undocumented students or charge them tuition to attend.
McFarland said when she showed up to protest that day, she didn’t plan on planting herself in a seat and getting physically removed by Tennessee State Troopers. But the thought of cooperating with punishing children was enough to make her stay in her seat when protestors were asked to leave the gallery. A small group stayed in their seats when asked to leave, but eventually also left their seats. McFarland stayed in her seat, telling officers she wouldn’t leave because she thought what the committee was doing was wrong.
McFarland was arrested and charged with resisting arrest and disrupting a meeting. She is scheduled for a hearing at 8:30 a.m., May 2, in General Session Court with Judge Sam Coleman.
In a statement online, McFarland wrote the following about her choice to refuse to leave:
“I didn’t intend to get arrested when I left for Cordell Hull yesterday morning. If I had, I wouldn’t have worn my nice jewelry and Eileen Fisher slacks.
Another hearing. This time in the TN Senate Finance Ways and Means Committee, on the bill to make it harder for some immigrant children to receive their Constitutional right to a free public K-12 education. I’ve been to most of these hearings and heard the arguments from Sen. Bo Watson and Rep. William Lamberth. Before their respective bodies, Sen. Watson has pitched the case that it’s necessary for financial purposes; Rep. Lamberth seems to be a bit more focused on addressing the (il)legal status of the parents. But these the central points of both bills, of course.
Money. And A Punishment System.
The counter-argument is The Children, whether their own learning opportunities are impacted or they have to watch their friends and classmates be punished.
Maybe it was the repetition of the now-familiar points that struck me: Money and A Punishment System.
There are two Dems on this Committee, Sens. [Jeff] Yarbro and [London] Lamar. Sen. Yarbro (Nashville) happens to be my senator. And back in the day, a few months before I was born, my parents moved to East TN (Oak Ridge) from just outside Memphis, so I pay close attention to that end of my world, too.
Sen. Yarbro pointed out the long-term cost to the state of having a permanent underclass of “illiterate people at the State’s direction” and made the powerful statement that there is a “moral cost to this bill” that will “punish kids.”
Sen. Lamar pointed out the hardships on lower income families to obtain missing birth certs and raised the question of whether an educator, faced with an undocumented child, could call ICE in. Sen. Watson replied to her question by saying something to the effect that the ICE issue would be “considered in Rules and Regulations.”
One of my girlfriends has a plate on the front of her car that says, “Quiet My Mind. Open My Heart.” On Sunday, another girlfriend added, “And Shut My Mouth.” We had a good laugh.
But, you know, that’s what happened. Sitting in the hearing, I felt at peace and I felt compassion for All of Us, and I just could not cooperate. My heart wouldn’t let me.
The Troopers were kind. (If you know me, you will appreciate the fact that I felt I needed to tell them, “You know, I’m not doing this to be a smart-aleck”).
So, Eileen Fisher slacks or not, I could not cooperate with this process and I got arrested.”