Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993 TAG: 9304020033
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FRANKLIN TO GET MEDIATOR
A U.S. Justice Department mediator is coming to Franklin County next week to hear complaints of racism and racial friction in county schools.Frank Tyler, a veteran mediator in the department's regional Community Relations Service in Philadelphia, sent brochures about the service to school officials last month after reading newspaper accounts of tensions at Franklin County High School.
He later talked with Superintendent Leonard Gereau, who invited Tyler to come to Franklin County and assess the situation.
"There's still tension and it needs to be relaxed," Gereau said Thursday. "I think really the best way to handle it is with an outside group."
Tyler emphasized that his federal office does not do criminal investigations. "We don't prosecute anybody," he said. "We're sort of low-key. We're human engineers, if anything."
His aim, he said, is to help county residents solve their own problems.
Several weeks ago, black parents and students formed an organization to protest racist behavior after reports that a white high school math teacher used the word "nigger" and lectured white girls against dating blacks. The teacher has denied using racial slurs.
The parents' complaints also have led to imminent chartering of a Franklin County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
County schools are peaceful, but rumors about racial conflict continue to swirl, Gereau said. He said parents still have not brought their concerns to him, and he hopes Tyler's visit will help.
Tyler, a former teacher who's been with the department's Community Relations Service for 17 years, plans to arrive in the county Tuesday. He is a senior conciliation specialist.
He intends to spend about three days in "meaningful, unthreatening" talks with parents, students, school board members, school administrators and others to hear all perceptions of the controversy. "I will be talking to as many people as I possibly can," he said.
"We'd like to talk to the [high school] principal, or principals, and I'd like to talk with the members of the School Board," he said.
No schedule for the talks has been set.
Tyler will ask the people he meets for their ideas on how the school system can resolve any racial tensions. Then, he said, he will determine what other support services might help - perhaps a biracial committee, perhaps an outside consultant or other strategies.
A Thursday news release from Gereau said that Tyler will do "a formal assessment of the situation which will include a clarification of issues, the implementation of a system designed to control the spread of rumors" and help in developing solutions to "legitimate concerns."
The Community Relations Service, established under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, works with communities, school districts, universities, individuals and other groups on discrimination complaints based on race, color or national origin.
Several years ago, Tyler was on a team that eased conflicts between black college students and Virginia Beach merchants following tense Labor Day celebrations. Recently, he mediated when Pennsylvania parents and the NAACP protested a teacher's decision to have two black first-graders portray slaves in a black history program.
At the request of the Roanoke Branch of the NAACP, the Community Relations Service sent another conciliation specialist to Roanoke in 1990 to assess allegations that city police used excessive force against black citizens. The mediation ended when former Mayor Noel Taylor appointed a local task force to investigate the problems.