19 arrested at Wake County School Board meeting

Correction: (July 21, 2010, 6:35 p.m.) Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Laurel Ashton’s year at UNC. The story has been changed to reflect this correction. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error.

During a Wake County School Board meeting Tuesday, protests against an item that wasn’t even on the agenda became so tense that 19 people were arrested including three current and former UNC students.

Residents spoke out about the board’s recent decision to re-assign students based on neighborhood rather than the older policy that bused students across the county to achieve socioeconomic diversity.

People against the school board’s neighborhood schools policy, approved in May, argue that doing away with the diversity policy will effectively concentrate high-income and low-income children into separate schools, re-segregating the county’s schools.

About 1,000 students, teachers, parents and community members marched through the streets of downtown Raleigh Tuesday morningh to call attention to the policy.

Wake County high school graduate George Ramsay explained the benefits of diversity.

“Diversity is not a policy of convenience, it’s a policy of necessity,” he said.

N.C. NAACP President the Rev. William Barber, who was arrested for his protest at the last school board meeting, spoke to the crowd gathered on Fayetteville Street.

“Every child has the right to a constitutional, high-quality and diverse education,” Barber said.

Just before the 3 p.m. meeting, Barber was arrested outside the Wake County Public School System’s administration building on Wake Forest Road along with the Rev. Nancy Petty, senior pastor at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church.

The board members watched the scene from a second-floor window.

School Board Vice Chairwoman Debra Goldman said there’s a big void in the information getting to the general public.

At the board meeting, Chairman Ron Margiotta opened by addressing this concern.

Margiotta explained that the intention of the new assignment policy was to alleviate inefficiencies of the old assignment policy.

“This board does not intend to create high poverty or low-

performing schools” he said.

People from both sides attended the meeting, making the public comment session emotional.

Board member John Tedesco, who is part of the majority in favor of neighborhood schools, said people don’t understand the issue.

“Segregation was terrible,” he said. “We’re not doing that.”

Yevonne Brannon, leader of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, said she believes otherwise.

Like Brannon, many parents and students continue to argue that the new plan is de facto segregation, and they are not backing down.

Minutes before the end of public comment time, Camellia Lee, a 19-year-old from Chapel Hill, gave a spoken-word performance. Others joined in her chanting.

Lee and others were arrested when they refused to vacate the front of the room.

UNC junior Laurel Ashton, 2008 UNC graduate Marie Garlock and 2009 graduate Rob Stephens were arrested for second-degree trespassing and disorderly conduct.

“If people want to come from out of town and get arrested, OK,” Tedesco said. “I’m ready to get to work.”

After the arrests, students at the meeting joined arms. Some cried. The chants of protestors filled the streets and the board room:

“Forward ever, backwards never.”

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.