THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606210014
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 51 lines
One of the hardest lessons for public officials to learn is that the best way to deal with criticism is to meet the charges head on, with honesty and full disclosure.
Just look at the White House, Hillary Clinton and Whitewater, for evidence of how high up in government this malady persists.
But you would think Virginia Beach schools would have learned that lesson very well throughout their troubles of the past year.
Yet, after Tuesday's School Board meeting, where a number of African-American parents voiced strong concerns about how their children are being treated in school, officials claimed that race-based data concerning discipline is not available.
Why not? Surely in the computer age, when it seems every other thing is recorded, cataloged and stored, school officials ought to be keeping track of what types of offenses are being committed in the schools and who's committing them. Race is not an insignificant part of the equation.
Some parents, especially black parents, believe that their children are being singled out unfairly for discipline. They contend that black children are disciplined more frequently than white children and sometimes for offenses that would not merit punishment if committed by others.
Is there anything to their complaints? Who knows? Certainly not the school system, which ought to be able to retrieve this data and refute the charges at the push of a button.
To his credit, School Superintendent Dr. Timothy Jenney requested those numbers when the disgruntled parents came forward. But the data wasn't available and school officials are trying to compile them now. What a pity this wasn't part of the way the schools did business before Jenney came on board.
Some of these same parents are concerned that their children are being underrepresented in the system's gifted-and-talented programs. Here, there is evidence that they have a point. While African Americans make up about 22 percent of the student population, they are only 8 percent of the students at the two gifted centers.
Because the school system has this data, an advisory committee is trying to figure out how to broaden the scope of the program. One sensible solution is to test every first-grader for the gifted program. Presently only children recommended by their teachers, or whose parents demand that they be screened, are tested.
How sad that a number of parents believe that their children are being treated as second-class citizens in the public schools.
Sadder still is a school system that cannot categorically deny those allegations. by CNB