Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Partnering with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the south to defend and advance their political, social and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing and communications.

Diversity policy turmoil may remake Wake's national image

RALEIGH — Wake County’s family-friendly, slightly nerdy image got a makeover this week, thanks to noisy accusations of resegregation and images of protester-toting police at school board meetings.
From “The Today Show” to the Los Angeles Times to The Economist, media around the world have been spreading the tale of the Wake County school board’s 5-4 decision Tuesday to ditch the 140,000-student system’s policy of supporting economic diversity in favor of a neighborhood-based system. During the nine-hour-plus meeting, the divided board heard accusations of racism during a public comment period and loud chants from a group of hallway protesters. Three protesters were arrested.
“Busing to end in Wake County, N.C. Goodbye, school diversity?” blared a headline in this week’s issue of the Christian Science Monitor.
Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said it’s time for county commissioners, who provide a significant portion of the system’s budget, to “step in and take control of this disorderly situation.”
Meeker, who is married to school board member Anne McLaurin, is among the supporters of the diversity policy who say the new school board majority is tarnishing Wake’s national reputation.
“It’s putting Wake County in a very bad light and making people have second thoughts about coming here,” Meeker said of the recent national attention.
Outside agitators
Supporters of the new board blame the negative publicity on outside agitators – one of the protest organizers was from Durham and two of the people arrested were from outside Wake County. The one Raleigh resident who was arrested has a lengthy history of arrests at protests on behalf of liberal causes.
“You’ve got a lot of people who are paid political agitators who don’t even live in Wake County,” said Joey Stansbury, a local conservative blogger who supports the new board majority. “A lot of the people who are shouting about the issue aren’t representative of the true desires of Wake County.”
Elena Everett, community media director with the left-leaning Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham, said the protest of college and high school students was merited by the new board majority’s swift action to set aside long-established Wake policies.
“I think you’ve got to leave all options on the table when you are dealing with well organized and ideological people who don’t listen to reason,” said Everett, 29, who is the daughter-in-law of former Wake school board chairman John Gilbert.
Off to jail, again
Tuesday’s arrest of Dante Strobino, 29, of Raleigh shows it’s the fourth time he’s been charged for trespassing, according to state court records. The records show he’s also been arrested twice for resisting a police officer and once for breaking and entering. Strobino is a union organizer who has also been a youth activist with the Raleigh chapter of F.I.S.T. (Fight Imperialism Stand Together), an avowed socialist group.
Strobino, a former N.C. State University student, declined comment Thursday.
Court records also show that one of the arrested protesters, Duncan Edward Hardee, 21, of Asheville, has now been charged once for resisting a police officer, once for trespassing and once for indecent exposure. Hardee, a former student at Enloe High School in Raleigh, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Records show that Tuesday’s arrest for resisting a police officer was the first for Rakhee Devasthali, 22, a UNC-Chapel Hill student from Fayetteville. Devasthali was among protesters who were nearly arrested after they started chanting their opposition to increased tuition and fees at a state legislative hearing earlier this month.
Devasthali did not return calls or e-mails for comment Thursday.
Images of the three being arrested have blazed across the country this week in numerous media outlets.
“I’m proud that we have students getting involved,” said school board member Kevin Hill, a member of the minority. “But the students have to realize there are limits.”
Margiotta keeps quiet
School board chairman Ron Margiotta said he’s turned down numerous national media requests for interviews.
“I’m trying to let things calm down with all the national stuff going on,” Margiotta said.
Harvey Schmitt, president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, said the level of coverage means recruiters will likely encounter questions about the schools from people or companies Wake would like to attract.
“The reality is we still have a very strong system; that didn’t change overnight,” Schmitt said. “In terms of the impact that it’s going to have, I think that over time we’ll have a better appreciation for that.”

March 23, 2010: Students and Alumni of the Wake County School System Led a Sit-in Today During a Meeting of the Wake County School Board, Demanding All Students Receive a Quality Education

Raleigh, N.C. (March 23, 2010) – This evening the Wake County School Board is scheduled to take a final vote on dismantling the system’s nationally recognized diversity policy. In response, an organized group of Wake County students, alumni, and their supporters began chanting “Shut it Down, No Segregation in our Town.” Demonstrators were forced from the building where they continue to rally outside.
The policy is a measure that seeks to ensure socio-economic diversity in all schools as a statistically proven way to bring more equity to the education system by avoiding low-performing high-poverty schools. Demonstrators, who believe this vote will move the community toward re-segregated schools and a two-tier system of education, attempted to enter the meeting en masse and declared the new school board majority was violating both legal and moral laws by continuing to operate as it had been.
Concerned parents, students, and community members have been packing the school board meetings for months, trying to stop these measures by the new majority, who were elected by less than 5% of the voters in the county.
“Separate but equal didn’t work then and it wont’ work now. This is a right-wing agenda being pushed on the people of Wake County and its being bank-rolled by some of the richest conservatives in our state – Art Pope, and the chair of Civitas, Robert Luddy, who runs several private and charter schools,” stated Andy Koch, a junior at UNC Chapel Hill and alum of Wake public schools.
Demonstrators and the public were also outraged by new procedures that sought to further limit public input on the measure by limiting attendees to only those who could pick up tickets at 10:30am for the 3pm meeting.
“How are students or working parents able to meaningfully participate and have their voices heard if the only people who attend are those who can afford to show up at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning? This is a clear maneuver to limit participation by working class people, who happen to be the people who will be most affected by this decision,” said Alicia Sidney, a single mother of two.
In addition, the school board was slated to vote on a new policy that threatened suspension for any student who picketed or protested the new policies.
“This is a violation of our human rights – what kind of civics lesson are they trying to teach us by threatening to suspend students for using their voice as we attempt to exercise our First Amendment Rights?” stated an outraged Jacob Ehrlich, a Wake County high schools student.
Demonstrators demand: that all following school board meetings be held at a time and place that allow for meaningful public participation, that the school board not move forward on any radical alteration of its policies until a full review of the data and fiscal implications, to drop the so-called “student disruption” policy that seeks to limit student’s First Amendment Rights, and finally, a re-call election to allow the people of Wake County to determine if these members truly have the support of the community.
Contact:
Elena Everett, Southern Coalition for Social Justice
(919) 413-1276; Elena@southerncoalition.org
Ben Carroll, HKonJ Youth
(919) 604-8167, itsaredletterday@gmail.com