By MARK BLEVINS and TAMMIE TOLER
PrincetonTimes
Sat, May 17 2008
—
PRINCETON — Allegations of racial unrest at Princeton Senior High School put protesters on the street and sparked spirited discussion between parents and the school board at its monthly meeting Tuesday.
Though the issue came to a head this week, the reports of possible racial problems have simmered for months.
The allegations stretch all the way back to September, Sean Harris, 35, of Princeton, said. Last fall, he said his daughter was involved in a racially charged altercation that occurred after school and off campus, on McDonald’s property. Princeton Police officers investigated that incident and reported at the time they did not believe the dispute was driven by race issues.
However, community and school leaders gathered at Harvest Outreach Center in November 2007 to open a dialogue on race and how to handle harassment in the school system, Jacquetta Harris said Monday. During that session, she said officials drafted a five-step plan to address any potential racial problems that arose amid students.
From her perspective, and that of other parents who picketed this week, the school system never followed through. In fact, they said teens who told officials they were targeted for bullying based on the color of their skin were told to “chalk it up as a it a lesson learned.”
“They’re not following their own policy,” she said, and both she and Sean Harris alleged the racially motivated harassment continued in recent months.
Another incident involving the Harrises’ daughter took place last week. A white student allegedly told the young woman last Wednesday that she wasn’t special because she was black, Sean Harris said.
The angry father said the problems continued to escalate and that his daughter was physically assaulted last Friday by at least one white student.
Other parents on hand at Monday’s Stafford Drive picket and Tuesday’s board of education meeting agreed that there are incidents they believed to be driven by racist motivation happening at PSHS.
Tonya Lash, whose nephew attends the high school, said one day earlier in the school year that a white bus driver took all the black students back to the school and made them get off the bus and walk home in the rain.
“This is being swept under the rug,” she said.
Lash and the Harrises were among those Monday who participated in two protests on Stafford Drive across from the high school. They wore signs asking for awareness and protection for their children. One sign read, “Wanted: New Principal at Princeton High.”
Wanda Saunders, who wore the sign calling for new administration at PSHS, said after the incidents earlier in the year that things calmed down, briefly.
“It started back up a couple weeks ago. It’s went from threats to hands being put on students...” she said.
Sean Harris said a small group caused the racial problem.
“It’s 10 to 20, max. It’s a small group making it look bad, and the administration isn’t in a hurry to try and resolve it,” he said.
Wanda Lee, a parent, said during the regular Mercer County Board of Education meeting there was an incident involving her son in September where a female on a bus called him a racial epithet. She said her son looked to the bus driver for help, and that the bus driver admitted to laughing at him.
She said her son said other students in the back of the bus began saying “White power.” She also said her son had been hit by a water bottle in November.
“Nothing was done to these students,” she said.
Jacquetta Harris said she and the parents who protested alongside her only acted out of frustration at what they see as an administration reluctant to protect their children.
“These kids should not have to go to school in fear,” she said, calling on the community to join the cause. “Just because it’s not happening to your kid doesn’t mean it’s not happening.”
Susan Stewart didn’t protest this week, and her son isn’t even in sixth grade yet. But, she was still frightened this week when the threats made the rounds through PSHS and the community.
“Do we add a bullet-proof vest and a phone to our school supply list?” she asked.
She said school officials should not “turn their backs and pass the bucks” on potential problems. Instead, she called for more guidance and school-directed education on tolerance.
“I know these are children, and they can’t be left alone,” Stewart said. “We can’t assume they know right and wrong just because we put them in an adult situation.”
Though she was distraught after the fall altercation she believed to be racially motivated, Jacquetta Harris said she was most disappointed that a session involving a U.S. Justice Department program on tolerance and diversity was canceled due to inclement weather and that the five-step plan focusing on harassment was not implemented, according to the plan she believed was created at the Harvest Outreach meeting.
Along with calling attention to the racial issues they said their children experienced, Jacquetta Harris said the protest set an example for the community and the students at PSHS.
“Peaceful demonstrations like this get results,” she said.
She said that the protest was not only to benefit the African-American students.
“This is not a cause for black kids. This is for any minority, or any kid that’s being picked on,” she said.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.