Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
16
Dublin school officials deny segregation claim
DUBLIN - Ask attorney Jerry Lumley to explain the case of United States v. City of Dublin schools, and he begins in 1954 - Brown v. Board of Education.
The Justice Department motion filed in April has its roots in the original case that triggered the end of segregation. In the new case, the Justice Department is claiming that remnants of segregation still exist in the Dublin school system.
School officials strongly deny it and have responded by asking the judge to grant unitary status to the system, which would amount to an official declaration that the school system is desegregated. Dublin is one of only a few school systems in the state that have yet to obtain unitary status, which school officials said is mostly because no
one has ever pressed the issue.
[color=r
ed]The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to change the way the city schools group classes, and to restrict the numbers of white students who live in the city but transfer to the Laurens County school system, which the department believes contributes to increasing racial disparity in the city system. The county system is majority white.[/color]
Lumley, who successfully represented the Thomasville school system in a similar case, is representing the Dublin schools. Though Laurens County schools are not officially a defendant, the system is also named in the complaint and has hired an attorney. Both school systems are fighting the Justice Department complaint. A hearing is expected sometime next year, after which Judge Dudley Bowen would decide the case.
The complaint also states that Dublin schools are in violation of a 1978 order requiring the end of "racially identifiable classes." That order stat
es that each class should generally reflect the overall racial balance of the sch
ool.
School board chairman Bob Willis said the board is fighting the case because the system can go no further in meeting the requirements.
"We have done everything we can possibly do," he said. "It puts us in an impossible situation to meet the present guidelines."
Emily McCarthy, the attorney handling the case for the Justice Department, deferred comment to a spokesman, who declined comment.
School board member Sandra Scott said she supports the Justice Department's actions. She said the key issue is not student transfers, but the way classes are grouped.
"I think what the Justice Department is doing can be positive, because it makes you look at what you are doing," she said. "I think what the Justice Department is doing will help us come up with a better scheme for grouping."
Scott said she did vote to seek unitary status be
cause she believed it would give the school system an opportunity to look at its policies and make improvements.
Racial makeup of city schools
changed
After the city schools desegregated in 1971, the student population was 57 percent white and 43 percent black. In the past school year, the ratio was 72 percent black and 24 percent white. The Laurens County school system was 65 percent white.
The Justice Department alleges that a long-standing practice of allowing students living in the city to transfer to the county schools is contributing to an increasing racial disparity in the city schools.
Yet, both school systems say that's not the case because white students living in the county also transfer to the city school system. Figures from the state Department of Education show that in the previous school year, 181 white students and 159 black students living outside the school district were attending city schools. At the same time, 150
white students and 18 black students living in the city were attending another public school system.
That means, if there had been no transfers last year, the total
white student population in the city school system would have decreased by 31 students, and the black student population would have decreased by 141. The overall student population of the city school system is currently at 3,060.
However, the Justice Department states in its motion that it does not seek to stop Laurens students from transferring to Dublin, because that has "a positive effect on white enrollment in all of the receiving schools."
Under the 1978 order, only 5 percent of the city schools' minority population, which would now be white students, could be allowed to transfer to another school.
At one time restricting transfers might have made more of a difference. But the Laurens County Board of Education now has a tuition policy under which students li
ving outside the district must pay $300 per year to attend the county schools. That policy reduced the number of transfers.
Laurens County is named in the lawsuit because of its policy of accepting transfers fro
m the city. County schools Superintendent Larry Daniel wouldn't say much about the case because the county is not listed as a defendant, but he did say the county is supporting the city schools' opposition.
He said that if transfers were restricted, the result would be that black/white ratios in both systems would not change much, and a large problem would be created by students who have to switch schools.
"It would be chaos," Daniel said. "It would be a mess, and I don't think it would help either school financially, or the families involved."
The Justice Department alleges that the difference in restricting transfers would actually be greater than the official numbers reflect. The complaint alleges th
at the steep decline in the numbers of white students in the city system indicate that many families living in the city may simply be claiming to live in the county. It asks the judge to force the county to make a better effort to confirm the true residency of students.[/color
]
Daniel said the county school system already does everything it can to confirm residency, and he doubted the assertion that high numbers of students are claiming false residency.
Lee Parks, an Atlanta attorney representing the county in the case, has worked on similar cases throughout the country. He said the complaint amounts to the federal government attempting to micro-manage a small school system without fully understanding the situation.
He predicted dire consequences should the Justice Department win the case. If transfers were stopped, he said, and the city is forced to comply with the exact letter of law on student assignment, the result would be many families simp
ly moving out of the city.
"Most parents are not going to have the federal government dictate where their children go to school," he said.
"Why they would pick the poor city of Dublin to come down and jump on is beyond any of us."
Gayle Stinson lives in the city but sends her son to
the county schools. That started, she said, because many of his friends went to Southwest Laurens Elementary School, and she liked the school, so she pays the tuition fee.
If she were barred from sending her son to the county system, she said she might consider moving to the county.
"That very well could be," she said. "I know some who have already done that."
Lumley said the bottom line for the city school system is that race is not a factor in any of its policies.
"It is our position that here in the year of 2004, that the vestiges of that dual school system have been eliminated," he said. &q
uot;All educational opportunities are open to all children regardless of race."
Lumley said he believes the city school board helped its case tremendously when it reorganized the schools so that each grade was housed in the same school. That eliminated school zones and assured the best racial balance in each school, he said.
"That's a big key to our case," he said.
*************
Memo to Presi
dent W: Call off the diversity dogs, you phony conservative.
T.N.B.
Dublin school officials deny segregation claim
DUBLIN - Ask attorney Jerry Lumley to explain the case of United States v. City of Dublin schools, and he begins in 1954 - Brown v. Board of Education.
The Justice Department motion filed in April has its roots in the original case that triggered the end of segregation. In the new case, the Justice Department is claiming that remnants of segregation still exist in the Dublin school system.
School officials strongly deny it and have responded by asking the judge to grant unitary status to the system, which would amount to an official declaration that the school system is desegregated. Dublin is one of only a few school systems in the state that have yet to obtain unitary status, which school officials said is mostly because no
one has ever pressed the issue.
[color=r
ed]The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to change the way the city schools group classes, and to restrict the numbers of white students who live in the city but transfer to the Laurens County school system, which the department believes contributes to increasing racial disparity in the city system. The county system is majority white.[/color]
Lumley, who successfully represented the Thomasville school system in a similar case, is representing the Dublin schools. Though Laurens County schools are not officially a defendant, the system is also named in the complaint and has hired an attorney. Both school systems are fighting the Justice Department complaint. A hearing is expected sometime next year, after which Judge Dudley Bowen would decide the case.
The complaint also states that Dublin schools are in violation of a 1978 order requiring the end of "racially identifiable classes." That order stat
es that each class should generally reflect the overall racial balance of the sch
ool.
School board chairman Bob Willis said the board is fighting the case because the system can go no further in meeting the requirements.
"We have done everything we can possibly do," he said. "It puts us in an impossible situation to meet the present guidelines."
Emily McCarthy, the attorney handling the case for the Justice Department, deferred comment to a spokesman, who declined comment.
School board member Sandra Scott said she supports the Justice Department's actions. She said the key issue is not student transfers, but the way classes are grouped.
"I think what the Justice Department is doing can be positive, because it makes you look at what you are doing," she said. "I think what the Justice Department is doing will help us come up with a better scheme for grouping."
Scott said she did vote to seek unitary status be
cause she believed it would give the school system an opportunity to look at its policies and make improvements.
Racial makeup of city schools
changed
After the city schools desegregated in 1971, the student population was 57 percent white and 43 percent black. In the past school year, the ratio was 72 percent black and 24 percent white. The Laurens County school system was 65 percent white.
The Justice Department alleges that a long-standing practice of allowing students living in the city to transfer to the county schools is contributing to an increasing racial disparity in the city schools.
Yet, both school systems say that's not the case because white students living in the county also transfer to the city school system. Figures from the state Department of Education show that in the previous school year, 181 white students and 159 black students living outside the school district were attending city schools. At the same time, 150
white students and 18 black students living in the city were attending another public school system.
That means, if there had been no transfers last year, the total
white student population in the city school system would have decreased by 31 students, and the black student population would have decreased by 141. The overall student population of the city school system is currently at 3,060.
However, the Justice Department states in its motion that it does not seek to stop Laurens students from transferring to Dublin, because that has "a positive effect on white enrollment in all of the receiving schools."
Under the 1978 order, only 5 percent of the city schools' minority population, which would now be white students, could be allowed to transfer to another school.
At one time restricting transfers might have made more of a difference. But the Laurens County Board of Education now has a tuition policy under which students li
ving outside the district must pay $300 per year to attend the county schools. That policy reduced the number of transfers.
Laurens County is named in the lawsuit because of its policy of accepting transfers fro
m the city. County schools Superintendent Larry Daniel wouldn't say much about the case because the county is not listed as a defendant, but he did say the county is supporting the city schools' opposition.
He said that if transfers were restricted, the result would be that black/white ratios in both systems would not change much, and a large problem would be created by students who have to switch schools.
"It would be chaos," Daniel said. "It would be a mess, and I don't think it would help either school financially, or the families involved."
The Justice Department alleges that the difference in restricting transfers would actually be greater than the official numbers reflect. The complaint alleges th
at the steep decline in the numbers of white students in the city system indicate that many families living in the city may simply be claiming to live in the county. It asks the judge to force the county to make a better effort to confirm the true residency of students.[/color
]
Daniel said the county school system already does everything it can to confirm residency, and he doubted the assertion that high numbers of students are claiming false residency.
Lee Parks, an Atlanta attorney representing the county in the case, has worked on similar cases throughout the country. He said the complaint amounts to the federal government attempting to micro-manage a small school system without fully understanding the situation.
He predicted dire consequences should the Justice Department win the case. If transfers were stopped, he said, and the city is forced to comply with the exact letter of law on student assignment, the result would be many families simp
ly moving out of the city.
"Most parents are not going to have the federal government dictate where their children go to school," he said.
"Why they would pick the poor city of Dublin to come down and jump on is beyond any of us."
Gayle Stinson lives in the city but sends her son to
the county schools. That started, she said, because many of his friends went to Southwest Laurens Elementary School, and she liked the school, so she pays the tuition fee.
If she were barred from sending her son to the county system, she said she might consider moving to the county.
"That very well could be," she said. "I know some who have already done that."
Lumley said the bottom line for the city school system is that race is not a factor in any of its policies.
"It is our position that here in the year of 2004, that the vestiges of that dual school system have been eliminated," he said. &q
uot;All educational opportunities are open to all children regardless of race."
Lumley said he believes the city school board helped its case tremendously when it reorganized the schools so that each grade was housed in the same school. That eliminated school zones and assured the best racial balance in each school, he said.
"That's a big key to our case," he said.
*************
Memo to Presi
dent W: Call off the diversity dogs, you phony conservative.
T.N.B.