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Mom pulls kids out of school after discovering school elections are based on students’ race
By HOLBROOK MOHR - Associated Press
JACKSON — A policy intended to achieve racial equality at a north Mississippi school has long meant only white kids can run for some class offices one year, black kids the next. But Brandy Springer, a mother of four mixed-race children, was stunned when she moved to the area from Florida and learned her 12-year-old daughter couldn’t run for class reporter because she wasn’t the right race.
The rules sparked an outcry on blogs and other Web sites after Springer contacted an advocacy group for mixed-race families. The NAACP called for a Justice Department investigation — not surprising in a state with a history of racial tension dating to the Jim Crow era.
By Friday afternoon the Nettleton School District announced on its Web site it would no longer use race in school elections.
Superintendent Russell Taylor posted a statement saying the practice had been in place for 30 years, dating back to a time when school districts across Mississippi came under close scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department over desegregation.
“It is the belief of the current administration that these procedures were implemented to help ensure minority representation and involvement in the student body,” the statement said.
“It is our hope and desire that these practices and procedures are no longer needed.”
Springer said her daughter was told the office of sixth-grade class reporter at Nettleton Middle School was available only to black students this year.
Her anger grew when she saw school election guidelines that allowed only whites to run for class president this year. In alternating years, the positions would be reversed so blacks could run for president and whites could hold other positions, district officials said.
Even if the rule is an attempt to ensure black and white participation, Springer said diversity is no longer a black and white issue.
The school agreed, saying it the statement it “acknowledges and embraces the fact that we are growing in ethnic diversity and that the classifications of Caucasian and African-American no longer reflect our entire student body.”
The changes in school elections may have come too late for Springer.
Springer said she moved to another school district last week and pulled her kids from Nettleton Middle School.
Springer’s plight demonstrates the complexities faced not only by interracial families, but by school officials trying to achieve racial equality in a state known for tensions between blacks and whites. The school district also manipulated prom and homecoming elections so the outcome is an equal division of blacks and whites.
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By HOLBROOK MOHR - Associated Press
JACKSON — A policy intended to achieve racial equality at a north Mississippi school has long meant only white kids can run for some class offices one year, black kids the next. But Brandy Springer, a mother of four mixed-race children, was stunned when she moved to the area from Florida and learned her 12-year-old daughter couldn’t run for class reporter because she wasn’t the right race.
The rules sparked an outcry on blogs and other Web sites after Springer contacted an advocacy group for mixed-race families. The NAACP called for a Justice Department investigation — not surprising in a state with a history of racial tension dating to the Jim Crow era.
By Friday afternoon the Nettleton School District announced on its Web site it would no longer use race in school elections.
Superintendent Russell Taylor posted a statement saying the practice had been in place for 30 years, dating back to a time when school districts across Mississippi came under close scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department over desegregation.
“It is the belief of the current administration that these procedures were implemented to help ensure minority representation and involvement in the student body,” the statement said.
“It is our hope and desire that these practices and procedures are no longer needed.”
Springer said her daughter was told the office of sixth-grade class reporter at Nettleton Middle School was available only to black students this year.
Her anger grew when she saw school election guidelines that allowed only whites to run for class president this year. In alternating years, the positions would be reversed so blacks could run for president and whites could hold other positions, district officials said.
Even if the rule is an attempt to ensure black and white participation, Springer said diversity is no longer a black and white issue.
The school agreed, saying it the statement it “acknowledges and embraces the fact that we are growing in ethnic diversity and that the classifications of Caucasian and African-American no longer reflect our entire student body.”
The changes in school elections may have come too late for Springer.
Springer said she moved to another school district last week and pulled her kids from Nettleton Middle School.
Springer’s plight demonstrates the complexities faced not only by interracial families, but by school officials trying to achieve racial equality in a state known for tensions between blacks and whites. The school district also manipulated prom and homecoming elections so the outcome is an equal division of blacks and whites.
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