Posted on 04/14/2010 2:29:07 PM PDT by jerry557
A U.S. judge on Tuesday ordered a rural Mississippi school district to comply with a nearly 40-year-old order and halt long-disputed practices that led to racial segregation in its schools.
The Justice Department accused the Walthall County School District in Mississippi of annually permitting more than 300 students, most of them white, to transfer to a school outside of their residential area, shifting its racial makeup.
Further, administrators at three other schools grouped most of the white students into their own classrooms "resulting in significant numbers of segregated all-black classrooms at each grade level," the U.S. government said in a court filing.
The case comes in a state that was at the heart of the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1960s. In 1964, three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi, an incident that helped prompt Congress to pass a law banning racial segregation in schools, work and public places.
The school district was ordered in 1970 to stop segregating its schools. But in the late 1980s officials were confronted by the Justice Department with concerns about student transfers to other schools that undermined the desegregation efforts.
While the district made some changes in the early 1990s, the Justice Department said the practices continued and the schools became "significantly more segregated." The district did not respond to the government's lawsuit seeking reforms.
In fact, the county school board in 2009 rejected a tentative settlement with the government that would have overhauled the district's transfer policy and prevented students being assigned to classrooms based on race.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Tom Lee, in Jackson, Mississippi, ordered the school district to significantly limit transfers. Lee also ordered the district to stop assigning students to classrooms that resulted in segregation, demanding that it use a software program to randomly assign them.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Has any good been wrought from desegregation?
"Freedom of association is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The relevant portion states, “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging . . . the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”" (link)
Lots of schoolbus drivers have employed.
In other words, whitey must sacrifice their children to the gods of PoliticalCorrectness...
Why is this only an issue with schools? I have never heard a single person ever complain that most blacks voluntarily choose to go to black churches... does it not occur to these judges that maybe just maybe people prefer to be around their own kind when given a choice. I have absolutely nothing against blacks, but I would be lying if I said I would feel comfortable attending a school where I was one of the few white kids. Maybe that makes me racist, heck I don't even care anymore.
Mississippi ping
“Separate is inherently unequal”.
If students were being placed in a certain class based on skill set, would it still be unequal? The article doesn’t go into this, and it may not even be a factor. I am just wondering if anyone knows how this would be viewed legally.
its not safe to be white among blacks or asians among blacks or even hispanic among blacks....its not safe and no real parent would let their child be in that environment...
Brown v. Board of Education was about racial segregation.
Segregation by skill is acceptable and has never been challenged.
Oh, Lord. Mississippi schools are already segregated - they’re called ACADEMIES.
Plus, Jackson has been trying to annex local surrounding areas for a long time in order to “spread the wealth” (or the dearth) of South Jackson students.
Tell them to “desegregate” South Jackson, Pt. Gibson, or Canton schools and stop treating the white teachers who are giving their all to help black kids succeed like trash.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Tom Lee, in Jackson, Mississippi, ordered the school district to significantly limit transfers. Lee also ordered the district to stop assigning students to classrooms that resulted in segregation, demanding that it use a software program to randomly assign them.
Note that not assigning students to classrooms based on race and not assigning students to classrooms in a way that results in segregation are not the same thing.
I completely agree that students should not be assigned to classrooms based on race. I do not agree on randomly assigning students to classrooms.
When I attended elementary school there were grouped according to their abilities. Students that were struggling were grouped together, and students that were excelling were grouped together. If you were near the top of the group you were in they moved you up. If you were struggling in the group you were in they moved you down to where you would be taught at a pace that was of more benefit to you.
In higher grades the classes you chose to take tended to have much of the same effect.
School policies need to be colorblind.
There is definitely a problem of underachievement by some minority groups in schools. Some of it has do do with poor family support. Some of it has to do with a lack of hope which leaves students with the perception that there is little incentive to work hard.
I've known too many people of different races that have excelled to believe the poor performance in intrinsic to people of a particular race. I however don't know how to solve the problem.
I do know that the solution is not to randomly form classes so that teachers are forced to bore a large portion of the class to death while leaving another large portion in the dust because the level of learning amongh the students differs too much.
We are going to see more private schools in Mississippi.
Thank you for the answer!
“Lee also ordered the district to stop assigning students to classrooms that resulted in segregation, demanding that it use a software program to randomly assign them.”
The above quote from the article is what caught my eye in reference to skill set. Friends that teach relay to me how hard it is, for teachers and students alike, when a class isn’t assigned by individual skill. It has nothing to do with race. Perhaps the software (of which there are many),which the judge has ordered, is programmed to adjust for skill set.
"The Justice Department accused the Walthall County School District in Mississippi of annually permitting more than 300 students, most of them white, to transfer to a school outside of their residential area..."
Assigning white and black students to different classes in the same school might be the result of objective sorting by ability, but transfer of most white students to other districts, or vice versa, looks mighty like intentional segregation by race.
The district's position, if ability is the justification for transferring most white students out, has to be that its instructional abilities are so low that it can't educate the better students. Somehow I doubt that.
Birds of a feather flock together. A very old, but 100% accurate statement.
When I was in the military ‘63-’67, I noticed in every mess hall I was ever in, that blacks and whites voluntarily segregated themselves in seating.
Did any other vet notice this phenomenon?
I've read right here at F.R., that some school districts are punishing students on a quota system now, after complaints that blacks were receiving a disproportionate amount of punishment, based solely on numbers.
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