Posted on 08/11/2002 12:02:06 PM PDT by Michael2001
A Durham minister is out of jail, arrested after a protest at Thursday's Durham school board meeting.
A rowdy school board meeting has people talking in Durham. Durham NAACP president Curtis Gatewood was taken to police headquarters for disrupting Thursday night's school board meeting. "I haven't heard anybody read me my rights yet, what are my rights? Why am I being arrested?" Gatewood said as officers took him away, charging him with trespassing.
Gatewood and several other people got angry because Dr. Regina George-Bowden was not chosen to chair the board. George-Bowden is black. Chairwoman Kathryn Meyers is white, and the vote to re-elect her was split along racial lines. Meyers talked to Eyewitness News about the vote and about the controversy that's marked the beginning of her new tenure.
The group is in its seventh day of protesting, which culminated in an effort at Thursday night's school board meeting. Their anger has yet to cease following the chaotic meeting. "They set us back twenty or thirty years, back in the sixties," said parent Jackie Wagstaff.
"They tell us that they want the best for our kids and they do something like that," said parent Herman Davenport, referring to the controversy over staffing changes at Hillside High School. "It's just uncalled for."
Durham County School board members voted to re-elect Kathryn Meyers as chairwoman for her eighth consecutive term. She's a woman some people criticized for backing the superintendent's decision to replace hillside high school's principal. "They knew that there were people looking for a change in that board," Wagstaff said.
Some people in the black community couldn't handle the split decision along racial lines. Things erupted Thursday night, and Gatewood was hauled off to jail for trespassing after he was told to leave the building. The woman who remained at the helm said she took what happened Thursday night personally. "I was stunned and stung by the personal attack about my credibility and my credentials to serve," said Meyers.
"A black boardmember is nominated for chairperson, a black board member that has a degree from North Carolina State Univerisity, a degree from Duke, she taught at Syracuse her resume went on and on and on," Davenport said.
Meyers suggests the decision has nothing to do with race. "It comes down to a positive working relationship with the superintendent," she said.
But as the group continued its determination to get the superintendent removed from her position, some people called for change in the board's leadership. "Dr. Denlinger is making the decisions that are in the best interest of the students at Hillside and at all of the other schools," Meyers said.
Some aren't buying into that. "Our school board speaks of diversity, but we haven't had any diversity in leadership in our school board in the past seven years," said Davenport.
The protestors plan to continue picketing outside the school board offices until school starts next Tuesday. And they say some parents are considering keeping their children out of school.
Totally unsurprised bump.
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