NEWSONE NOW EXCLUSIVE: CHICAGO TEEN BANNED FROM PROM SPEAKS OUT

Today on NewsOne Now, host and managing editor Roland S. Martin spoke with high school senior Taiylar Ball about being banned from prom for using a racially-charged term.  The 18 year-old honor student was denied entry to her prom following the use of the N-word in a spoken word poem during her senior talent show. “I used the N-word in a positive connotation. I never had any type of malicious intent,” said Ball. Although graduation is just four days away, Ball’s graduation status is still pending. Washington Post Assistant Editor and panelist David Swerdlick believes that banning an honor student from prom and graduation was an excessive disciplinary action and believed that other forms of punishment should have been pursued.
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Swerdlick said, “Even if there was a reason to punish, which I think punishment was excessive either way, as a principal you’ve got to exercise some discretion and say, look, I’ve got to do something because we have a rule. I’ll give you detention or suspension, but to take kids who are succeeding out of the prom, out of graduation is ludicrous.” 

Videos courtesy of TV One/NEws One Now

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​Also on NewsOne Now, a mother of a young Texas girl is furious to have found severe rope burns around her daughter’s neck after an overnight school trip. Martin spoke with the young girl’s attorney who is investigating the alleged racially motivated incident

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Emanating from the heart of Washington D.C. in a state-of-the-art studio that offers a stunning view of the Capitol building,News One Now airs Monday through Friday on TV One from 7-8 a.m. ET.  News One Now is hosted by Roland S. Martin,the 2013 National Association of Black Journalists’ Journalist of the Year and former host of TV One’s long-running, award-winning weekly news program, Washington Watch with Roland Martin.  Each morning, Martin – who also serves as the program’s managing editor – sifts through the headlines of the day to spotlight matters that greatly impact the African American community. In addition to television, News One Now reaches audiences 24/7 with exclusive program content and extended editorial on NewsOne.com and the NewsOne mobile app.  News One Now is an evolution of Interactive One’s award-winning digital brand NewsOne.com that launched in 2008 and reaches millions of African Americans each month.Susan Henry is executive producer of News One Now. D’Angela Proctor is TV One’s head of original programming and production.
 
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Launched in January 2004, TV One (www.tvone.tv) serves 57 million households, offering a broad range of real-life and entertainment-focused original programming, classic series, movies and music designed to entertain and inform a diverse audience of adult Black viewers. The network is the exclusive home of News One Now, the only live daily news program targeting Black viewers.  In December 2008, the company launched TV One High Def, which now serves 14 million households. TV One is solely owned by Radio One [NASDAQ: ROIA and ROIAK, www.radio-one.com], the largest radio company that primarily targets Black and urban listeners. 
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