IN OUR SCHOOLS
i:.\!U I.SIONS:
Arc Black Students Tarueled?
An upLIFTing Program
A "A Black Person Knows Where I'm Coming From'
By MARK R. MOSS
Chronicle Staff Writer
If you're looking for an exam
ple of the type of person who gets
expelled from the Winston
Salem/Forsyth County School sys
tem, you don't have to took far.
That example would" include an
18-year-old who was once in the
class for the academically gifted, a
16-year-old unwed mother and a 12
year-old soon -to-be mother.
These and 45 other students
who for one reason or another have
been removed from the school sys
tem, can be found on the second
floor of an old building on Ihe cor
ner of 17th and Ivy streets in East
Winston.
They're students at LIFT ? for
"Learning Is Fun, Too" ? and
they're there, in most cases, because
they ran afoul of the system and
school officials ran out of patience
in dealing with them.
The school system, however, is
just as responsible for the trouble
these students have gotten in as
much as the students themselves*
Earlinc W. Parmon, the program's
director, said.
"The majority of our students
have totally lost hope in the educa
tional system," said Parmon, who is
Forsyth County commissioner.
"School is not impprtant to them.
They've been calledpblack,' stupid'
and told 'they can't liam anything.'"
At LIFT, Parmon said, she tries
to "re-program" the students.
Large, black students intimidate
At six-feet-four, J Owens ?
"just J," he replies when you asked
to spell it) towers over everybody at
LIFT. It's his height, he claims, and
the scowl he can adopt when angry
that has proven disconcerting to
school officials. But Owens in very
engaging, with a ready smile and is
extremely mannerly.
As an llth-grader last year at
Mt. Tabor High School, Owens was
kicked out for fighting two school
officials and the liason officer. A
fight, he said, that was the culmina
tion of frustration that stemmed
from-being called a "nigger" by a
white student.
West Forsyth High School,
where he was re-assigned, "was just
an extension of my problems at Mt.
Tabor," he said. After a confronta
tion with some white students at a
basketball game, he said, he was
singled out as the trouble-maker. He
was later expelled for disorderly
conduct.
There's a race problem in the
schools," Owens says. "There's this
undertone. If you try to talk about it,
you get in trouble."
Was in academically gifted classes
Owens, now a senior, explained
that as one of the few blacks in the
academically gifted classes, he was
considered part of an elite group of
mostly whites and that students in
regular classes were looked down
upon. Most of his friends, however,
were in the regular classes. The atti
tude his teachers had. he said, was
that because he was in the special
classes he was no longer black.
"There are so many black
teachers who won't say anything
because they're concerned about
their jobs or scared of messing up." j
he said.
The great thing about LIFT, he
said, was that the school has "black
role models."
Lashannon Brown. 16, was
attending Independence High
School, when she was kicked out tor
fighting. She was assigned to Inde
pendence after she became pregnant
while attending R. J. Reynolds High
School. She said her troubles began j
at Reynolds because there was no
one there to talk to.
"You just can't talk to a white
person like you can talk to a black
person," she said. "A black person ;
knows where I'm coming from. 1 i
feel more comfortable talking to
someone from my own race."
Lashanna Brown , student at LIFT Academy.
.25-caliber falls from pocket handgun and .12-guage, pistol-grip
shotgun to school because someone
Derrick Highsmith, 17. broke was "messing" with his sister. The
one of school's staunchest rules: he handgun fell from his pocket in
had guns. He-carried -a .25-caliber class. Police were called. Highsmith
? 1
has also spent six months in ific
Forsyth County jail on tlrn^ chars:
He spoke of other run-ins with 'lie
law, and frequently placed tin'
blame on those he w as with
Black Girls Suspended More Than Whites
By RICHARD L. WILLIAMS
Chronicle Managing Editor
In the first semester of this year, African-Ameri
can female students were recommended for expul
sion at a rate four times that of white female students
in the Forsyth County middle and high schools.
Of the 29 female students recommended for
expulsion prior to the Christmas break, 23 were
African- American. Twenty -one black girls from the
middle schools were recommended for expulsion and
two from the high schools. Over the same period a
year earlier, black females at middle schools were
%. , - V ? % ? \ *\
recommended for expulsion by a 2-to-l ratio ? 11)
black female students to 5 whites. In the high
schools, during the same period, three blacks and no
whites were recommended for expulsion.
In first half of the 1990-91 school year, the fig
ures again were lopsided. African-American girls
accounted for all 12 of the students recommended for
expulsion from the middle schools. In the high
schools, African-American females were recom
mended for expulsion 21 times out of a total number
of 24. Over the three-year period, African-American
girls were recommended for expulsion 1 1 1 times out
of the total number of 139.
Learning Is F un Too
Earline W. Parmon (center), director of LIFT Academy , poses with some of the 48 students who have come
to the school after being permanently expelled from the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School system. Ben
jamin Robinson (left), an instructor, teaches social studies at LIFT.
Blacks Are Expelled frompageM
group."
Of the 1,510 students at North
Forsyth, 62 percent of white and 38
percent are black.
Walter Marshall, one of two
black members on the city/county
school board, said he became con
cerned about the numbers after he
received several calls from upset
black parents.
"I was getting all these calls
about students getting put out of
school," Marshall said. "I wanted to
see if this was some kind of trend.
My intention is not to point fingers
at any one school or principal, but to
find out what's behind it."
Marshall said he hopes the
school board looks into the matter.
G. F. Sakran, program manager
for assignment and student hearings
for the school system, said the 286
students who were recommended
for expulsion had committed serious
infractions, which were defined as
fighting, possessing drugs or alco
hol or having a weapon on school
grounds.
High school students who com
mit serious infractions can be trans
ferred to another mainstream school
or to Independence High School,
which is an optional school. Middle
school students expelled from main
stream schools also can transfer to
another school or be sent to Petree
Middle School, another optional
school. Independence and Petree
schools represent the last stop
before a student is kicked out of the
school system for the remainder of
the year. The student, however, can
re-apply for admission at the begin
ning of the next school year.
Only students who committed
weapon and drug infractions are
expelled for the remainder of the
year, Sakran said.
In part because Independence
High is the last option before a stu
dent is permanently expelled, it
recorded the highest number - 18.
The total number of students recom
mended for expulsion was 23. of
which 18 were black.
Principal Dan Piggott said the
black-white expulsion ratio pretty
much reflects the racial makeup of
the student body. Of 368 students,
251 are African Americans. But
what concerns him most, he said, is
that while enrollment has remained
consistent, the number of students
permanently expelled this year is
higher than at the same time last
year.
"I have observed that in the last
few years we seem to be dealing
more and more with kids who do
not respond well to authority," Pig
got said. "They don't respond to
adults at home, if there is an adult."
He said the students who are
causing the most trouble seem to be
getting younger every year.
THE PRO SHOP
for 9 1 1 your golfing needs
Vineyard Plaza 4836 Country Club Rd. M-F 9:30 - 6:00 Sat. 9-3
919-760-0849
Invest With Confidence
: "i Mechanics and Farmers Bank
Introduces Your
Investment Management and Research
Financial Center
Mechanics and Farmers Bank has teamed up eith Investment
Management and Research, Inc. (1M&R), a nationally recognized financial
services firm to offer you comprehensive investment services. Smnc ol
these investment products and services include:
Mutual^ Funds
? Retirement Plans
? Annuities
? Bonds
? Insurance
? Financial Planning
Services
? Cash Management
All this, along with professional personal service, from your
Investment Management and Research Financial Center.
Located at
Mechanics and Farmers Bank
Durham Raleigh
1 1 1 Orange Street 1830 Rock Quarry Rd
(919) 688-4900 (919) 688-4900
Winston-Salem Charlotte
770 Martin Luther King Dr. 700 E. Stonewall St.
(800) 437- 1 987 (800)437- 1 987