Scuffle at Meeting over NC School Resegregation

(AP)  Protesters and police scuffled Tuesday at a school board meeting in North Carolina over claims that a new busing system would resegregate schools, roiling racial tensions reminiscent of the 1960s.

Nineteen people were arrested, including the head of state NAACP chapter who was banned from the meeting after a trespassing arrest at a June school board gathering.

"We know that our cause is right," the Rev. William Barber said shortly before police put plastic handcuffs on his wrists before the meeting started.

Inside, more than a dozen demonstrators disrupted the meeting by gathering around a podium, chanting and singing against the board's policies.

After several minutes, Raleigh police intervened and asked them to leave. When they refused, the officers grabbed arms and tried to arrest the protesters. One child was caught in the pushing and shoving, as was school board member Keith Sutton, who was nearly arrested before authorities realized who he was.

"Hey, hey, ho, ho, resegregation has got to go," some protesters chanted.

Sutton, the only black member of the board, said he went into the crowd to try and calm things down and encourage officers not to use such strong force. He said he felt insulted that he almost got arrested and believes the officer who tried to detain him owes him an apology.

"I'm just real dismayed and disappointed," Sutton said.

The Wake County School Board has voted multiple times over the last several months to scrap the district's diversity policy, which distributed students based on socioeconomics and for years had been a model for other districts looking to balance diversity in schools. Several school board members elected last year have built a majority in favor of focusing on neighborhood schools.

The board's chairman, Ron Margiotta, said the panel would not be distracted in its effort to "provide choice and increased stability for families."

"This board does not intend to create high poverty or low-performing schools," he said to scoffs from the crowd.

At a morning rally that drew 1,000 people, speakers quoted Martin Luther King Jr., remembered the days of segregated water fountains and likened the current situation to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education battle. Barber talked about America's legacy of racial strife to galvanize the crowd.

"Too many prayers were prayed," Barber said. "Too many lives were sacrificed. Too much blood was shed. Too many tears were shed. We can't turn back now."

Barber's supporters believe the new policy will resegregate schools. They carried signs that read: "Segregate equals hate" and "History is not a mystery. Separate is always unequal."

George Ramsay, a white former student body president of Enloe High School, said it was necessary to keep the diversity policy in place to prepare students for an increasingly connected world.

"It is shortsighted to ignore the way students like me have been enriched by diversity," Ramsay said.

[lacarter11]

We want to keep busing to Segregate Public Schools but we want more Publicatly Funded Segregated Charter Scools. What do we really want ??? Close the Courpt Charter Schools and spend the money on buses, drivers and gas.

[texbelle123]

North Carolina. What do you expect? Crackers.

[get_down]

The truth of the matter is Raleigh?s Wake County voters got tired of witnessing the involuntary busing policy which is supported by the head of the NC NAACP chapter Rev. William Barber not working. After spent decades suffering from that involuntary busing policy, the WC voters voted recently for ?Change? and successfully elected majority members which made up the WCPSS Board of Education. Since then, Rev. William Barber publicly expressed that he won?t accept the voters? wishes. Either William Barber?s way or highway. And he was willingly arrested twice for breaking the law.

[get_down]

The head of the NC NAACP chapter Rev. William Barber intentionally and willfully broke the law not just once, but twice and each time he purposely caused interruption and disrupted the WCPSS Board of Education elected members to conduct their official business. Can someone imagine some intruder barging into the Oval office to prevent Obama from conducting his Presidential affairs? Rev. William Barber is a criminal to say the least!

[thy-only_king]

These damn NAACP people need to be taught a lesson.

[nanc12]

Does your name refer to your belief in Jesus Christ? If so, you are the poster child for every anti-Christianity poster here. You are so blatantly the opposite of everything he taught.

[slvrsurfer3]

Why not just use the "N" word like you want to. You sound like you're a time warp out of the fifties America. I can just see you knotting the rope while you're saying that................

[larrryshrine]

As a resident of the Raleigh-Durham area, I have been following this closely, and in fact see multiple wrongs. I believe the protesters - and believe me, they had a right to protest - got out of control. This is not the first meeting that got contentious. But the new policy is truly resegregation. Let's face it, in America today, many, many neighborhoods are still segregated, and that is a shame. While neighborhood schools have virtues, I believe that would be outweighed by the segregation that will result from this new policy.

[dmwj2]

Absolutely unbelievable!