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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 1979)
i U n' PPS proposes equitable desegregation plan The greg I he d ese g re g atio a tio n -integ -in te g ra tion tio n committee o f the Portland School Board began Wednesday night to deal with the demands o f the Black United Front, attempting to head o ff the school boycott scheduled for September 4th I ast Thursday the Board had subm itted a letter to the Black United Front stating in part, “ The P o rtlan d Board o f Education acknowledges the Black U nited I rout's objectives to be a legitimate and accurate expression o f dissatis faction with the district's present program o f desegregation. Further we recognize this dissatisfaction to express the views o f a significant seg ment ol the district's population. Therelore, the Board assures Black United I rout members and other concerned citizens that it takes very (o review very seriously and pledges to seriously the objectives o f that organization." BUF co-chairman Ronnie Hern don met w ith Board C hairm an Frank M cNam ara Sunday and presented several proposals to be im plemented for the 1979-80 school year. Among these were that the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades be returned to Humboldt and the 4th and 5th to E lio t; that m iddle school age children who are bussed out o f the area have the option to return to Fernwood. Beaumont or Columbia/ Whitaker middle schools; that white students in E arly C h ildh oo d Education Centers be required to remain through the grades offered; that all students be allowed to attend the high schools in their area; that children wait for buses at the schools and be provided shelter and super- Parents w ill chose whether they children will catch the bus at school or at pick up points. Supervision and shelter w ill be provided at the schools. The Board o f Education w ill meet Monday at 7:30 p m. to discuss and adopt the com m ittee recom m en dations. Since all o f the current Board members were present and only Forrest Reike expressed substantial opposition to the measures endorse- ed, it can be expectaed that they will be adopted with only minor changes. Ronnie Herndon told the Observer that he is disappointed at the “ undo amount o f reluctance to giving the Black community the same choices available to the white community.” He proposes that all students who » ratio more __ a ratio more reflective o f the student body make-up." For the coming year, the commit tee determined to create a 4th grade class at Eliot and a 3rd grade class at H um bo ldt and to in v ite those students who would otherwise be bussed out to remain in their school. They declined to add a 5th grade class at Eliot or 4th and 5th grade classes at H um boldt or to allow bussed students whose schools no longer have their grades to attend other Albina schools. Children who are now transfered can return to their own school if their grades exist. T he committee decided to allow those 6th graders from Humbodt, Eliot and King Area I, who have no middle school assignment, to attend Fernwood, Beaumont or C olu m c u b ia /W h ita k e r. Seventh and 8th graders must remain in their current assignments. Theoretically students who live in the areas served by C o lu m bia/W hitaker (Woodlawn, Faubian, Vernon and King Area II) can attend Columbia/W hitaker. However, if all were to attempt to register at the school, there would be no space for them. C lint Thomas, desegregation supervisor, estimated that about 450 students who theoretically belong at C o lu m b ia /W h ita k e r have been recruited to other schools. A ll students are now allowed to at tend their own high schools, in cluding Jefferson, even if they have been transferred to other schools. This is not widely known and some parents have met opposition from principals and area administrators. PORTLAND OBSERVER vision; that efforts begin to achieve a 20 percent m in o rity sta ff; that a com m unity m onitoring system be developed. The Board committee agreed to develop a comprehensive desegrega lion plan, to be implemented in Sep tember o f 1980, that where possible w ill cluster contiguous schools to achieve desegregated student bodies; create one or two middle schools in A lb in a ; not close any school in Albina. Parents, the Black United Front and community organizations w ill be involved in the planning. II adopted by the Board, the plan will include mandatory instruction o f teachers in Black history and culture; curriculum that w ill enhance self- worth and cultural identity; an effort to hire Black staff to “ move toward (Please turn to page 10 col. 1) Volume 9 No. 33 Thursday. August 23. 1979 10$ US PS 969 681) Black suspensions outstrip whites 5 to 1 Two years ago the disciplinary policies o f the P ortland Public- Schools were found to be discrimina tory against Black students. Under threat o f loss o f federal funds the d is tric t agreed to make suitable changes that would lessen the im balance ol Black students suspended and/or expelled from school. The d is tric t’ s statistics fo r the 1977-1978 school year demonstrate (hat Black children are s till sus pended at a rate greatly dispropor tionate to their numbers in the school population. Jackson High School for example, suspended 20.2 per cent o f its minority students while suspending 2.7 per cent ol the white students. Madison suspended 21.3 per cent o f its minority students and 5.4 per cent o f its white students. Grant sus pended 43 per cent o f its minority students and 2. I per cent o f its white students. M inority suspensions: Jackson 20.2 per cent; Jefferson 25.7; Lincoln 6.2; Roosevelt 15.9; Wilson 27.2; Adams 62.1; Benson 6.7; Madison 21.3; Marshall 10.4; M onroe 4 7; Cleveland 19.1; Franklin 8.2; Grant 43.0; Washing ton 38.7. The percentage o f minority high school students suspended is 25.6 per cent. While student suspen sion rate was 10.8 per cent. Portland's minority middle school students (grades 6 through 8) were suspended at a rate o f 20.3 per cent. White students were suspended at a rate o f 12 per cent. M arkham M id d le School sus pended 29.5 per cent o f its minority students while 5.1 per cent o f the white students were suspended. Fern wood suspended 23.1 per cent o f its minority students and 7.8 per cent o f its white students. Suspension records indicate the following rates o f minority suspen sions: Markham 29.5; Portsmouth 8.9; Binnsmcad 14.0; W h ita k e r/ C olum bia 19.2, Fernwood 23.1; H osford 25.6; Kellogg 13.0; and Sellwood 43.4. A lth ou g h many elementary schools, especially primary schools. did not suspend students 5.2 per cent o f the district’ s minority students in elementary schools were suspended. Atkinson suspended 15.6 per cent o f its m inority students while 2.9 per cent o f its w hite students were suspended; Glencoe suspended 15.8 per cent o f its minority students and 1.0 per cent o f its white students. Woodstock suspended 37.9 per cent o f its minority students and 5.3 per cent o f its white students; Hayhurst suspended 40.2 per cent o f its minority students and 2.6 per cent o f o f its white students. M ultnom ah suspended 38.5 per cent o f its minority students and 7.7 per cent o f its white students. (Please turn to page 2 col. 3) Parent endorses demands, opposes boycott P n , it . n u t s next mayor? City C om m issioner Charles Jordan hopes so Ho .m il Com m issioner Frank Ivancie split the vote 2-2 in an e ffo rt of the Couiii tl to till the vacancy left by the resignation of Neil G oldschm idt Ms. Edna Pittm an came unde, some criticism following an interview that appeared in last week’ s Willamette Week quoting her as an opponent o f the planned school boycott by Black children Ms. P itt man clarified her position: “ I am against keeping children out o f school—even fo r one day— but I agree with the Black United Front's demands. I have fought too hard fo r loo many years to keep my children in school to take them out now ” Ms. Pittman proposes no alter native to the boycott, but mentioned a court suit as a possibility. "T hat takes too long, so I don’t know what could be done right now ." Ms. Pittman states emphatically Some thoughts on the problem hv W I I McClendon "M ack people must make positive decisions about their lives. They do not need to be m a state of anxiety about this leading to their being alienated from white people. They must be w orking co nsta ntly to remove their alienation fro m other Mai k people. ’ ’ — The Mack Scholar, September 1974 I he present aspects o f Black life in Oregon are historically rooted. They were produced here prior to the Civil War and reflect the character and at titudes endemic to the widespread anti-Black white racism o f N orth west settlers who were the advocates o f white racism as it was being ex pressed i hen in the North and the South Oregon, in fact, remains as an im pregnable haven fo r fostering the peaceful co-existence o f the abrasive, overtly assaultive, racist practices attributable to the South and the insidious, ruthless, subtle racist customs o f the North. The vast amount o f discord which is obvious today lies in the unre solved dispute over the status the Black population knows it should have as a matter o f citizenship and the low status in the social structure to which Blacks are assigned by the law m aking and public p olicy authorities. Their contrivances and m anipulations to m aintain here glaring injustices and inequities have resulted in keeping Oregon, and Port land in particular, frontiers o f racial confusion The resulting antipathies have produced problems in the education sec.or that have com- 1 pounded and crystallized racial segregation. The present school ad m in is tra tio n has c o n trib u te d its special skills and training to this en deavor for the past ten years and it is plain to see an enormous degree o f success has been realized. The Port land school d is tric t can now be assessed as providing a volume o f damaging and useless mal-education fo r its Black students percentage wise that is not surpassed by what ever urban area may be competing for first place for this infamous dis tinction. A nalysis /k disclosure o f the P ortland school system's operations for the past ten years reveals some appall ing vio la tio n s o f Black peoples’ rights. For example, the Schools for the Seventies plan actually isolated Blacks from other Blacks, even in the same fam ilies! At the same time these Black children were also vic tims o f exclusion by the whites, pre ferred occupants, in the relocation com pounds where the buses delivered the Blacks. This school administration insisted that this was in te g ra tio n who needs it? The damages to result from subjecting Black children to this kind o f treat ment had been foretold a thousand times by as many Black analysts in more than 50 cities o f this nation. Nevertheless, the Portland school district persisted in fo llo w in g the lead set by a mind packed with racist and contem ptuous ind iffe re nce . M oreover, a co m p lia n ' School Board, a subordinate administrative s ta ff and teaching constituency (Blacks and whites) gave collective support and this provided the machinery and the momentum for wrecking the minds o f Black children in many ways that approximate the damages resulting from incar ceration in P .O .W . and concen tration camps. Education for the Seventies, the highly publicized operating format for Portland schools, planned by the present school superintendent was understood by Black analysts from the beginning as designed to serve as an unmatched demoralizing regime for Black students. This was per ceivable regardless o f the catch phrases and elaborate jargonese used by school district spokespersons to have subtle mechanisms o f coldly designed segregation thought o f and accepted as educational innovations. It was at this point that the superin tendent and his supporters (including the Blacks) were revealed to be un suited and unqualified to head edu cational programs and make policies in the best interest o f students o f any ethnicity or class. Nevertheless, educational racism was expanded and intensified under this leadership. Through the years many extraneous, b e littlin g machinations emerged to increase the difficulties and miseries endured by Black students. It should be clear by this time that Blacks do not wish to see any school authorities assuming the roles o f overseers o f the Black community. Il is expected that they will carry out th e ir duties as professional (Please turn to page 2 col 4) ■ ‘ .hat the school district has a serious discrepency in the discipline of Black children and that she has learned this firsthand. Ms. Pittman is a member o f the Title V II committee and as a member of that committee went to visit Binns- tnead School, which her children at tended. Jeffery, who was then in the sixth grade had attended Binnsmead for three years with no particular problems. Following her visit to the school, she states, Jeffery began having frequent suspensions for m inor rule infra ction s, this con tinued during his seventh grade year and got so bad that she organized a group o f Black parents who also had children at (he school. “ I considered a boycott then. I wus ready to ask all the Black parents to take their children out o f that school. I had made so many trips to school, went to the principal, the area administrator and everywhere I could to gel help but no one would help me. I tried to get Jeffery into C olum bia/W hitaker but they said there was no room for him. “ I received a call from an admini strator who asked if I liked my job at Adams and suggested that Jeffery slay at Binnsmead. He had never asked me how I liked my jo b before." The day the parents were to meet, Jeffery was suspended pending ex pulsion. He and two other boys had been giggling When the teacher told them to stop and they did not, the !• teacher allegedly hit Jeffery with a book. He said, " I f you weren’t my teacher, I would hit you back" and was suspended " I called HEW and decided to file a complaint, I made the m istake o f te llin g an ad m inistrator what I planned to do. The next day a place for Jeffery was found at Columbia/W hitaker and in one day he was transferred.” Ms. Pittman relates that many ol the Black parents at Binsmead were angry that she had moved her son and though, she should have stayed to tight. Je ffe ry stayed at C o lu m b ia / Whitaker the remainder ol the year, and because he was unhappy there he went to Kellogg for his eighth grade (Please turn to page 2 col. 4) Park change brings safety concern Residents o f the King neigh borhood have been asking for a park on C ity land adjacent to M artin Luther King School for many years, but now that construction is in progress they are not sure what they arc getting. A controversy has risen over the selection o f playground equipment. “ The main reason we wanted a park was to have a playground for the little children," Linda Johnson, a member o f the King School Parent A d visory C om m ittee explained. "N o w we aren’ t sure what we are getting is safe or that it will last." Mrs. I inda Johnson and Marian Hawaii represented King School and the King Neighborhood As sociation on the com m ittee that designed the park. "W e were the only community representatives, the others were for the City and knew about building parks. They were the experts, we just tried to make sure we got the playground equipment we wanted and to insure that the park will be safe for children. We didn’t want another Unthank.” Specifications were written to call play equipment "m anufactured by Wildwood or approved equal." The bid accepted from Paul Brothers Construction was $31,310 less then the next bid and they were awarded the contract. Their bid on the play ground equipment was $550 less but they substituted Timberform equip ment. Mrs. Johnson explained that she was told by Rich Wiley in the C ity’ s Purchasing Division that a commit tee had approved the Timberform (Please turn to page 2 col I) s- Üé r * Workers instslll playground equipment at King community park ad jecent to Martin Luther King Elementary School. The park also will have a track, sports field and tennis courts. (Photo: Tarry Robertson) * •A41'-**» M ... ■
