Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Mississippi school district ordered to end racial segregation

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a Mississippi school district to halt local policies that had allowed some of the district's schools and classes to become racially segregated. US District Judge Tom Lee gave the Walthall Country School District thirty days to amend its student transfer policy and ordered an immediate halt to the "clustering" of white students into certain classes in Tylertown, Mississippi elementary schools. Judge Lee has said that "the district shall cease using race in the assignment of students to classrooms in a manner that results in the racial segregation of students... the district shall randomly assin students to classrooms... through the use of a student management software program." Prior to Tuesday, the district had allowed more than 300 students, most of them white, to transfer from their assigned schools to schools that have a majority of white students. The second alleged violation involved grouping white students into a few designated classes at three other schools in Tylertown. The action created a significant number of all-black classrooms at each elementary grade level. Judge Lee ordered the district to take all necessary steps prior to the beginning of the 2010-2011 academic year to “accommodate the shifting enrollment patterns in the district expected to result” from the judicial ruling.

Someone tell Mississippi that it's 2010 and not 1954. I find it incredibly appalling that a school district would allow students to transfer to a school just because there is a significant amount of white students there. I'm surprised that they've been allowed to keep doing this for so long. I'm also surprised that there haven't been any parental complaints about the current situation. Clearly people don't realize that segregation is wrong. Why does it matter if people are black or white? I thought the country put that behind already.

1 comment:

Omid Dastgheib said...

Come on Mississippi! Segregation? Really?