Thomas White, age 13 when accused of entering Joplin Memorial Middle School armed with a weapon on Oct. 9, 2006, will wait until July 6 to learn whether his defense team has successfully argued that his constitutional rights were violated when he was certified as an adult in December 2006. Although the rifle discharged into the ceiling, no one was injured. If convicted of all charges, he could potentially be sentenced to life in prison.

Thomas’ defense team, public defenders Brett Meeker, James Egan and Kathleen Miller, asked that Thomas be remanded back to the juvenile court, sighting a number of infringements on his U.S. Constitutional and Missouri Constitutional rights associated with his certification as an adult.
 
Egan argued before Circuit Court Judge David Mouton, that Thomas’ certification as an adult violates his constitutional rights as a juvenile for his “protection against Cruel and Unusual Punishment.” Further, he argued that Thomas’ original legal council, Charles Lonardo, “fell below that of a competent attorney” sighting Leonardo’s failure to object to testimony in the certification hearing that was inadmissible. Lonardo also failed to introduce available evidence that could have demonstrated to the court that the juvenile system has adequate remedies for treatment and rehabilitation of Thomas.
 
Although Judge Mouton had cleared his afternoon calendar, he disallowed testimony by defense experts in attendance. Instead, Mouton directed Egan to sum-up what the experts would have testified to. Egan sighted important information that should have been heard by the court. The experts would have testified about Thomas’ competency, the certification evaluation and the learning disability that was unknown until after his arrest.
  
Had the court allowed Professor Donna Bishop’s testimony, who specializes in juvenile justice and juvenile delinquency, the court would have heard about two large-scale studies that indicate juveniles who receive harsher penalties when tried as adults are not “scared straight.” In fact, after their release, they tend to re-offend sooner and more often than those treated in the juvenile system.
  
The lone witness allowed to testify was Vincent Hillyer, executive director of the Boys & Girls Town of Missouri, a treatment facility with an impressive success rate, that helps youths to deal with the social issues that have manifested themselves into behavior deemed inappropriate in society. Hillyer testified that he interviewed Thomas and has accepted him into the treatment program available at the facility. Hillyer said that if deemed necessary to properly and fully rehabilitate Thomas, the young man could remain in the Boys & Girls Town facility until he is 21.
  
Hillyer’s impression of Thomas was that he is a young man who was pushed to the edge of coping with social issues and that Thomas simply made a very big mistake in dealing with the social challenges he faced.

“Boys & Girls Town is not a summer-camp program,” Hillyer told the court. “We’re not there to punish these kids; we’re there to help them deal with the issues that have brought them there.” He also noted that he lives on the grounds with his two young children and would not have accepted Thomas into the program if he felt he was putting himself, his own children or the other residents at risk.
 
“I just don’t understand,” Norma White, Thomas’ mother said after the hearing. “It’s all just such a waste of time and tax payers money, and my son is not getting the help he needs in adult jail. There’s no education; no treatment being offered. He’s just sitting there waiting for these legal wheels to turn at a snail’s pace, knowing full-well, even when it’s over and the trial is finished, it will just have to start all over again. I mean, how much time and money will be wasted before my son gets the help he needs.”
 
April Harper and her 14-year-old son, Aaron – who attended Memorial Middle School with Thomas, and in fact, suffered the same bullying that Thomas suffered there – also attended Friday’s hearing. Harper said, in watching Thomas sit stoically in the courtroom, as the prosecutors sat across the table from him, snickering and rolling their eyes at the defense’s arguments, she does not understand how anyone could look at Thomas as an adult. “What is the matter with these people,” she asked. “How can they not see that he’s a child, not an adult? He is a child who desperately needs a hug from his mother.”
 
Harper withdrew her son, Aaron, from school and is now home-schooling him. She said, given the similarities in Thomas’ and Aaron’s situations - the relentless bullying they both suffered and both their repeated requests not to be sent back to school, she realized it could be her son that now sits in prison attire, shackled in a court of law, with his life hanging in the balance. “It was difficult for Aaron to see his friend escorted in by sheriff’s deputies, in shackles,” Harper said of her son. “He’s heartbroken for Thomas. He wanted so much to go sit with him and to let him know that he’s not alone; that he’s not forgotten. He’s just heartbroken for his friend, and we don’t understand how anyone could see Thomas as an adult – let alone an entire legal system. I just cannot believe there is nothing we can do stop this.”
 
Donna Gallegos, administrator of Justice for Juveniles, a nationwide group that advocates against children being tried as adults – expressed grave concern for Thomas after the hearing. “Thomas needs guidance, intervention and treatment, not to be treated as one of the worst of the worst offenders that serves a life sentence in adult prison,” she said. “Public safety can be protected in juvenile court where Thomas would be in the Division of Youth Services until age 18, or at Boys and Girls Town until age 21.”

Justice for Juveniles is keeping a close eye on the Thomas White case and is hopeful the American legal system will not continue to victimize him.  “America is out of touch with the rest of the world, for we are treating our children in ways that are shameful, degrading, inhumane and immoral,” Gallegos said. “A child on Monday cannot be an adult on Tuesday.”

For more information, to find out how you can help support the child advocacy efforts of Justice for Juveniles and Thomas White, email Justiceforjuveniles@yahoo.com or contact Kathy Harris at 850-994-9688.