Posted on 01/01/2010 4:57:12 AM PST by reaganaut1
Racial tension has been building at Owatonna High School this week after a fight broke out Monday between white and Somali students, prompting heightened police presence, backpack searches and widespread parental worries.
Owatonna Police Chief Shaun LaDue said between six and 15 officers have been assigned this week to the school, which usually uses one liaison officer.
Principal Don Johnson said the problems began when two white students wrote papers in recent weeks that were "inflammatory and very disrespectful." One student handed out copies of his paper to friends, while the other posted his on a class blog. Both were suspended from the school of 1,600 students -- about 100 of whom are Somali.
Johnson said that before the second student returned to school Monday, the student sent text messages over the weekend to white and Somali students that were "unapologetic and in your face." He then walked into a common area Monday where more than 20 Somali students were gathered and sat down. An altercation erupted that sent one of the white students to the hospital for observation.
"When two or three [Somali] students went over there to take things into their own hands, they had a gallery," Johnson said. "It has triggered a kind of pandemonium mainly involving parents of Caucasian students, who pictured the worse -- as if 200 students were fighting on the football field."
False text messages about the school being on lockdown after someone brought a gun "created some additional strife," the principal said. "We've operated peacefully for years and then, all of a sudden, it seems like two boys couldn't quite figure it out."
One mother said Wednesday that her ninth-grader "is scared to death to go back to school tomorrow."
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Actually no - he hasn’t. He’s been pretty nice so far.
Calling me a bigot would be fightin words - because I’m not.
well i have another one for you ...Dekalb County in metro Atlanta is where 95% of the African immmigrants are settleld. There’s an inordinate number of apt fires there because of cooking in strange places. But the most amazing story I was told was from a social worker who was in charge of resettlement of some of the central Africans who have never driven a car, or had indoor plumbing or refrigerators. Basically they lived in tents and hunted with spears - this is true. One day the social worker got a call from the apt manager (where social service s placed these folks) and asked her to come over because they had a big problem. When the SW arrived the manager told her the family called because of a problem in the bathroom. When the plumber arrived, he found the bathtub filled to the brim with excrement and they wanted it emptied. I don’t know the end of the story.
Ping!
If something even close to freedom of speech was allowed in schools - the Muslim students would learn that they have a right to "answer with words".
Instead, the lessen is "you speak, we beat you up"... I guess they've made our country more like the one they escaped... which seems to be a pattern.
I hear dat
PING
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.