Some People Shouldn't Have Kids, Florida Judge Says

Jacksonville Circuit Court Judge Henry Davis has a reputation for calling it as he sees it.

The juvenile court judge once told a teenager with dreadlocks to cut his hair and behave “like a civilized human being.”

On Thursday, he caught the attention of people gathered at Jacksonville University to discuss juvenile justice by saying some people just shouldn’t have kids.

“We have to focus our efforts on children who are not yet conceived,” The Florida Times-Union quoted him as saying. “Because once a child is conceived under certain circumstances, your plot is cast.”

Davis, an African American, went on to explain that juvenile justice and race are intertwined. He also lamented his colleagues’ inability to talk about race.

“We’re here talking about juvenile justice, we’re talking about black kids,” the paper quoted him as saying.

Thursday’s forum was hosted by the Jacksonville University Public Policy Institute. Its intent was to dive into this question: “Has juvenile justice become arduous and contradictory, expensive and ineffective,” News4Jax reported.

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Davis has a long-standing reputation for speaking out on controversial issues. His 2013 ruling to ban a 14-year-old girl from every public school in Duval County following a fight that left another student with brain injuries made national headlines.

“This child is a threat to all of the children at any school,” Davis wrote in his injunction, the Huffington Post reported.

That ruling was later lifted by a higher court.

Last year, Davis took up a crusade against school violence, the Florida Times-Union reported in an earlier story. He wrote both the paper and the Duval County School District speaking out against violence in schools. In Duval, at least, he said it was “not possible to operate a high quality public school system.”

Davis blames society’s priorities, or a lack thereof for the problem.

He also blames the parents.

“If I had the parents that some of these kids had, I would have been dead too by now,” the Times-Union quoted him as saying.

Duval County Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti fired back in 2013, saying Davis’ view of the school system was shortsighted and irresponsible, News4Jax reported.

“It defeats and discredits what we do on a day-to-day basis, and it discredits all the kids that have escaped poverty in Jacksonville,” the station quoted Vitti as saying.

Davis, a Florida State University law graduate, was appointed by Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1992, News4Jax reported. He is also a member of the Florida Commission on Ethics and the Florida Board of Bar Examiners.

What are your thoughts on this? Is a lack of priorities in society to blame for kids’ bad behavior? Share your opinions by commenting below!