NYC Ed Dept. eyes charge kids bullied, 1 beaten (called "cracker" and "white boy,")

NY Daily News ^ | 10.10.05 | KATHLEEN LUCADAMO

[Coleus]

Ed Dept. eyes charge
kids bullied, 1 beaten

Students victims of race hate, mom sez

 

Lisa Brown moved from Oklahoma so that her two sons, Sloan (l.) and J.T. and her daughter Robbie could experience diversity in Brooklyn.

City education officials are investigating the claims of a pair of boys from Oklahoma who moved to Brooklyn to experience diversity, and instead say they got schooled in racism and violence.

Mom Lisa Brown, 33, told the Daily News she relocated her family from their small Oklahoma town so her husband, a Brooklyn native and social worker, could more easily find work and her sons could experience different people and ways of life.

Brown enrolled her sons, Sloan, 12, and J.T., 13, at Ebbets Field Middle School in Crown Heights. But when the boys, who are white, showed up, their mom said, they got a chilling indication of what was to come.

"Oh my gosh, we are going to have fun this year," a security guard muttered, according to Brown.

Things quickly got worse.

Sloan was beaten mercilessly, called "cracker" and "white boy," and chased into traffic by his new classmates, his family said.

The abuse got so bad that Sloan routinely bolted out of the building to find his brother and run to a nearby subway, dodging verbal and physical attacks, he said.

"It almost makes me cry," Sloan said. "I'm scared to go back."

The brothers skipped school all last week while their parents tried to sort out the mess.

"Do I have to send the National Guard in to get my children an education?" asked the distraught mom.

When Brown tried to alert Principal Marge Baker to the abuse, "the principal refused to take the calls," she charged.

Brown filed several police reports at the 71st Precinct stationhouse about the alleged abuse, but said she was ignored.

Police sources said precinct cops did take the incident seriously but believe school staff are in a better position to deal with what appeared to be a series of schoolyard fights and bullying.

The boys' stepfather, Ken Brown, requested a transfer for the boys on Sept. 28, but Education Department officials noted he can't seek the change because he is not a custodial parent.

Eventually, the fedup mom went to nearby Elijah Stroud Middle School to transfer her sons there, but said the principal told her: "They'll have the same problem here."

Education officials promised to help the Browns - after being contacted by The News.

"The principal was not sufficiently attentive to this situation," the Education Department said in a statement. "Upon learning of the situation, the region is taking immediate action to arrange a transfer for these children.

"We will fully investigate what happened, including whether racist statements, which are not tolerated, were made and take appropriate action."

Brown said the Education Department called her several times over the weekend, after The News made queries, pledging to get the kids into Elijah Stroud and chastising her for calling in the press.

Despite the principal's warning, Lisa agreed to send her boys to Elijah Stroud tomorrow.

"I'll make sure my kids are safe because it is the school system's job to make sure they are," she said.

For Sloan and J.T., escaping Ebbets Field Middle School will be a relief. The school opened in September as one of the city's many new small schools, with plans to "become the crown jewel" of Crown Heights, according to the Education Department Web site.

The Browns said their ethnically and racially diverse neighbors in Prospect Heights have embraced them, and they thought New York was "the greatest place on Earth" - until they started battling the school system.

"I was excited to expose my children to a complete variety of people," Lisa Brown said. "I thought it would be an advantage. I always told my children that children could be cruel - but not to this extent."

[Red Boots]

Your experiences sound an awful lot like the ones I had in public schools in Calif. Like the parents in this article, my parents moved from an all-white neighborhood to a racially mixed one in order to do their part to achieve a color-blind society. Unfortunately, we kids had to do the work.

Our elementary school was a attended by a mix of all kinds, but dominated by blacks. when they started busing, they actually brought white kids in from the suburbs. We white kids endured endless abuse from black kids.

They called us honkies, potato chips, and caspars ( the friendly ghost). One of the most hurtful epithets was heifer- directed at white girls exclusively. It still hurts when I think of it.

In class, the black kids would get mad at you if you looked up and just happened to look in their direction. "What you lookin' at?' they'd demand; and were never satisfied with your explanation. They'd threaten to , "kick your white ass after school". They'd always ask to see your paper, or homework, and if you said no, you'd get the same threat. Once a girl and I were in a work group with a boy who simply refused to help out with the project, because he said, " I don't do nothing with white people, period !".

Like your school, white kids did not dare eat in the cafeteria or stay after school. Once a friend and I thought we'd eat in the cafeteria; but the black students, who were the only ones who ate in there, threw food at us until we left. We had the same experiences in the locker rooms as you wrote about.

I could list a lot more incidents, enough to write a book probably, but I won't. I feel upset enough. Those parents need to get their kids out of those schools immediately.

[SaintDismas]

Well, Austin is different. Not really that part of Texas that is really Texan, if you know what I mean. (I grew up in Foat Wuth)

[wardaddy]

interesting proposal

the best private schools here in Nashville are around 20K per year too.....ridiculous

my oldest boy's pre-K is 8000/year

one of my old girlfriend's taught at Collegiate and earlier at the Little Red Schoolhouse in the village back in the 80s when we were living up there

taught lots of celebrities and very rich...

[Clemenza]

U of Chicago was about 45% Jewish back in the mid-1960s when my former neighbor went there. When I attended in the late 90s, it was about 40% Asian (counting foreign students and the native born) and 30% Jewish. I was part of the 30% other. There were not many blacks, despite the fact that U of C is located in a heavily black area.

[AmericanChef]

First mistake:
-Mom Lisa Brown...relocated her family...so...her sons could experience different people and ways of life.-

Guess her definition of "different" was pretty shallow.

Second mistake:
-...Brown tried to alert Principal...-

Complaints of reverse bigotry will not be tolerated.

Third mistake:
-"I'll make sure my kids are safe because it is the school system's job to make sure they are," she said.-

No comment required.

[Lightchild]

no, they'll investigate, determine the brown children were racist and punish them "appropriately." In these incidents, the whites are always guilty until proven innocent.

Serious, the most racist people I've ever met were black. I grew up in schools with a minority majority, too, and I've got the scars to prove it--though not litterally thank God.

[School of Rational Thought]

True liberals tout diversity and send their children to private school.

Brown apparently is naive.

[Bellows]

I know no racist whites, but I know many racist blacks. I wonder why that is?

I don't know why it is, but I hope you don't conclude from your experience that there aren't any racist whites out there. My own experience tells me otherwise. And how.

Racial bigotry knows no color boundaries.

[Bellows]

I just can't believe someone would move to a city just to expose their kids to diversity.

There are good and bad ways of exposing kids to diversity. This woman chose a bad way. When my niece and nephew made their first trip as kids out of their hometown in Ohio to visit me in NYC, they were agog at the variety of people they saw on the streets of midtown Manhattan -- people who are part of the everyday sidewalk parade to anyone who lives here. I think it was educational for them as children. And their mother (my sister) used it as an object lesson, that just because someone doesn't look, dress and act like you, that doesn't mean you should point fingers and laugh. It was just a visit; they went back to their Ohio farm town, where the kids lived until going away to college. But I think the trip was a good experience for them.

Ok, cue up the "New York, nice place to visit but..." tagline.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Yes indeedy, even here at FR.... wonder why.

[buickmackane]

The more I read about this mother, the more I wonder if she's related to "Cowboy" from "Big Brother 5."

I can also speak from personal experience when it comes to a cross-country, cross-cultural move. We moved from coastal Massachusetts to central Louisiana two years ago. Here they are under a 40-year-old court order to enforce desegregation in the school system. They have to bus the kids a considerable distance away from their homes in order to enforce it.

When I first arrived, it was explained to me that parents were going to drastic lengths to circumvent the busing rules, such as putting their houses up for sale or using Grandma's address so their children could stay in all-white areas. We were temporarily staying with family members who had a very desirable address in this regard, so we were held up to intense scrutiny as to whether or not we really lived there. The day I signed a lease for a place of our own, I was ordered to march straight into the classroom and remove my daughter from class immediately because she couldn't stay in the all-white school any more and had to be transferred to another district. Attending this new school meant busing my daughter into another town along a notoriously dangerous stretch of highway.

Because I was new to the area, I didn't know about an intriguing loophole in the rules until well into the school year. I discovered that the best schools were often located in the worst neighborhoods. If you want to get your child a really good education here, you can arrange for what they call a "Majority-to-Minority" transfer. They dangle some excellent carrots in front of parents who are open-minded enough to look past racial balance, such as tuition-free Montessori and magnet schools. The kids who participate in these programs get free busing, too, because the idea is to attract smart white kids from the outlying suburbs to attend inner city schools.

I took a lot of criticism from people for transferring my daughter into one of these schools, which happened to be 99% black at the time they were recruiting. It was a real leap of faith on my part. I was willing to risk it, though, because I knew that an education of this calibre would have only been available in private schools up North, with tuition around $15,000/year.

By the first day of school, however, it turned out that I wasn't the only white suburban parent who crossed over. In fact, I didn't see a single black parent on orientation night. The staff is mostly white, too. After three years of recruiting, I think they've got the racial balance down to about 60% black now. There has never been an unpleasant episode with regard to race since my daughter has been at this school, and I have never had any reason to regret the decision I made.

But, unlike the Oklahoma mother, I did my research and I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. I wasn't sitting around humming "Ebony and Ivory," so to speak.

[Mr. Wright]

Fear not -- it is only a matter of time until the Reverand Jesse Jackson and the Reverand Al Sharpton will be on the case.
They will get to the bottom of this and probably organize a march to end "black racism". hahahahahahahaahahhahah -- I can't stop laughing!