Ferguson grand jury decision on its way; also, ACLU admonishes Lincoln Prep for punishing students who silently protested during Jay Nixon’s speech last week

It has been confirmed that a grand jury has wrapped up its work, and prosecutors will announce late Monday afternoon or evening whether it will indict a Ferguson police officer on criminal charges for the shooting death of an unarmed 18-year-old man.

Michael Brown was shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on August 9. One witness said Brown’s shooting death was preceded by Brown raising both hands above his head and telling the officer that he was unarmed. Brown was shot several times.

Other accounts say Brown charged at and/or tried to overpower the officer. The facts are in dispute.

Gov. Jay Nixon flew to St. Louis from Jefferson City in apparent anticipation of the grand jury’s announcement. He will hold a press conference at about 5:30 with public safety officials to discuss state and local response to potential problems associated with the announcement of the grand jury’s decision. The timing of the press conference would seem to indicate that an official announcement of whether to indict Wilson will come later on in the evening.

Ferguson captured the national spotlight in August after some protesters became violent and destructive. Local authorities bungled their response to the protests, making matters worse through haphazard arrests and overbearing uses of force.

In local Ferguson-related news, last week, about a dozen Lincoln College Preparatory Academy students raised their arms above their heads and quietly walked out in the middle of a Nixon speech delivered at the Kansas City school.

The walkout last Thursday was a silent homage to the tension in Ferguson, Missouri.

School administrators, seemingly annoyed that a dignitary’s appearance at Lincoln Prep was overshadowed by the silent protest, reportedly called for the students to come in for Saturday detention, Breakfast Club-style. (Nixon’s speech had nothing to do with Ferguson.)

The ACLU reminded Lincoln Prep in a November 20 letter that students inside a school building don’t have the full free-speech protections that adults enjoy, but maintained that any punishment still represented an unconstitutional infringement of their rights.