Two school districts embroiled in racial tug of war (this one has it all: choice, naacp, money tug)***MUMFORD - About 70 white students were turned away from their schools here for two days this week as their parents, school administrators and civil rights attorneys fought the latest round in a racially charged legal battle between two small-town Central Texas school districts.
A ruling Friday will allow the students, who had transferred from lower-performing schools in nearby Hearne, to return to their classrooms in Mumford on Monday.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay to allow the transfer students to remain until a hearing in early October. Students, some of whom have attended the 460- student Mumford district since kindergarten, were banned earlier this week, after U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice ruled that their transfers violated federal desegregation laws by significantly altering the racial makeup of the school districts.
......"This is an education flee. They're running to get an education. It's not about race or color," said Tim Johnson, a 1985 graduate of Hearne High, whose 13-year-old son attends Mumford. "I feel sorry for the kids that are (at Hearne) and cannot get out and go somewhere else."
....."It was awful," said Reed, adding that teachers were starting to organize to home-school children who didn't want to attend Hearne schools.......***