IN OUR SCHOOLS
EXPULSIONS:
Arc Black Students Targeted?!
v.
By KAR?N M HANNON
Chronicle Staff W nter
After Leonard Patterson was
expelled from two middle schools
within the last year, he was deter
mined not to bring along any nega
tive labels to Petree Middle School.
After getting kicked out of
Cook and Paisley middle schools,
Leonard, 13, was sent to Petree as a
'last alternative. Since enrolling at
the optional school in January, he
says he now has a positive attitude
about school and hopes someday to
become an airline pilot.
Leonard does not fit the mold
of some of the students assigned to
Petree. He is shy, articulate, and
doesn't seem to be a slave to fashion
like most of his peers. He's also a
quick learner. In fact, he said,
when he did his schoolwork, he got
As. The problem? He seldom did
his work.
"I just didn't want to do it," said
Leonard, atypically dressed in nor
mal-fitting jeans and a shirt in the
dining room of his house one recent
Saturday morning. "I had already
done it and I already knew how to
do it"
Since enrolling at the optional
school in January, he says he now
has a positive attitude about school.
Leonard, his older brother and
mother recently moved to Winston
Salem from New York where. x he
said, he had already been taught
what his teachers at Cook and Pais
ley were teaching. That's why, he
said, he refused to do his work.
But his mother has helped him
realize that that wasn't a good
cxcuse for not completing his
assignments.
"1 have a child that 1 know is
capable of doing the work,"
Francesta Patterson said. ' But when
you can take a test without doing
homework, without studying, going
to sleep in class and passing, then
you know something s wrong."
Patterson said a school official
had recommended that she take her
son to Charter Hospital for a mental
evaluation.
"I knew my son didn't have a
mental problem,'' she said. "He just
wasn't doing his work."
But Patterson said she wasn't
aware that her son was not doing his
work until he had gottep suspended.
She said she did not bear anything
from school officials at Paisley
Middle School until Leonard was
sent home. And after that, she said
the principal was calling her every
day about him.
"I don't think they tried to fig
ure out what was wrong until it was
too late," Patterson said. "If they
tried to reach the kids and keep *
them in school, stop suspending
them, maybe he wouldn't be so far
behind. A child cannot get an edu
cation sitting at home."
Patterson said that one of
Leonard's teachers at Paisley
showed that she didn't care.
"One teacher told me. When
Leonard went to sleep in class, I let
him because I was glad he was
asleep so he wouldn't disturb any
one else, " Patterson said.
Leonard said the reason he did
n't want to do his work was because
he thought the teachers didn't like
BEATING THE ODDS
A Expelled from Cook , Paisley
Youth Flies High at Petree
Leonard Patterson
him. "They didn't like me because if in trouble," Leonard said,
one person was doing something But he said there was one class
and I was doing the same thing, she at Paisley where he did do his
would single out me and I would get assignments. It was a math class
taught by a black instructor.
"I never got in trouble in her
class." Leonard said. "1 liked her, so
I did my work in her olass. I didn't
do my work in my other classes."
Leonard said things got so bad
at Paisley before his expulsion that
he was retained and was told he had
to repeat seventh grade.
But three after he was evalu
ated at Petree, he was re-assigned
to eighth grade.
Patterson said she called Tony
Burton, who was then a teacher at
Petree, and asked how Leonard was
doing in school.
"He asked me why Leonard
was even there," Patterson said. "He
said he had to go back and look at
| Leonard's records. He said Leonard
is a jewel to him and to all the
teachers. He finishes his work
quickly and he helps the other stu
dents. Everything that Paisley said
about him, they were saying the
oppos i te/1
The difference was that teach
ers at Petree showed they cared.
"I like the teachers at Petree,"
Leonard said. "And they act like
they like me."
Leonard participates in a pro
gram he said was implemented by
Burton called "WOW," or World of
Work. It is a mentoring program
that provides youths skills in finding
jobs. 1
Patterson said that although she
had heard some negative things
about Petree, she considers the -
school a turning point that has made
Leonard change his attitude.
"I went there with a chip on my
shoulder, but after an hour after i
blew off my steam, I shut up
because it was completely different
from what I was told," Patterson
said. "I really liked it there and I left
there happy."
Leonard will be in the ninth
grade at Mt. Tabor High School
next fall. He said he plans to join
the Junior ROTC program and
hopes to become an airline pilot.
Meanwhile, he said he's going
to be a better student at Mt. Tabor.
"I'm not going to get in troubK
and I'm going to do my work,"
Leonard said. "I'm not going to do
anything bad to get into trouble."
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White Teachers Frightened
By Black "Mannerisms"
By MARK R. MOSS
Chronicle Staff Writer
A reason why African-Ameri
can students are disproportionately
expelled from schools across the
country is because white teachers
feel threatened by black "manner
isms," a Wake Forest sociologist
said.
"One reason certainly has
something to do with the manner
isms of black youths," Sociology
Professor Willie Pearson Jr. said.
"The way they walk; the wolfing'
they do."
White teachers, he said, "are
not very well tuned into that subcul
ture. They see (black mannerisms)
as a sense of defiance."
Most problem students, he said,
often are placed in special-educa
tion classes and are therefore
"labeled" throughout their school
life.
"The more negative a child's
experience is with the educational
system, the less likely that child will
be empowered by the system," he
said.
In the first half of this school
year, 206 of the 286 students in the
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County
School system who were recom
mended for expulsion were black,
and an overwhelming majority were
black males.
Thomas Thompson, a professor
of education at the University of
South Carolina and who has studied
male adolescence, said society,
teachers and the students them
selves should share the blame.
"We're finding black males and
females are exhibiting more antiso
cial behavior," saitf Thompson, who
is authoring a study for the National
Urban League on black males and
the school system.
"They're being more violent.
They are bringing the behavior
they're exhibiting in the community
to the schools", he said.
This, he said, "is due to a lack
of expectation on the part of par
ents."
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