Having been one of only two white kids in my sixth grade class, I can entirely understand the concern
Was this the result of busing or just the lay of the land? I know when I was in 6th grade and my sister was in 4th, they wanted to move the 4th grade to another school about a mile away because of overcrowding. The parents went nuts -- this was well before busing, and there was no racial element: it was a mixed-race neighborhood, and the same kids would have been in class. The paarents just didn't want young kids having to go that much further, and they wanted their kids to be able to walk to and from school with their sisters and brothers. The school people backed down, and they put up "cubicle walls" in part of the sewing room to accommodate the two 4th grade classes.