DATE: Saturday, November 22, 1997           TAG: 9711220358

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY REBECCA MYERS CUTCHINS  AND MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   91 lines

PROTEST CAUSES MORE UNREST 400 STUDENTS RALLY TO SUPPORT OUTGOING, CRITICIZED PRINCIPAL.

Tensions rose at Woodrow Wilson High School again on Friday as 400 students gathered in the school's central commons area to demonstrate support for outgoing Principal William E. Gibson Jr.

Absent from the morning gathering was the violence that erupted at the school on Oct. 14 during a massive brawl that injured two dozen students and ultimately cost Gibson his position.

The students that gathered Friday ignored repeated requests by school officials to disperse, until they were ushered into the gymnasium, where Superintendent Richard D. Trumble addressed them. Trumble was at the school Friday because school administrators had been warned about the students' planned rally.

Gibson, the subject of intense criticism since the fight, was absent from Wilson on Friday. He has been reassigned within the school division, and, starting Monday, Gibson will be ``principal on special assignment'' at the Instructional Resource Center. Rosa M. Wells-Garris, principal of Waters Middle School, who has a reputation as a disciplinarian, will be acting principal at Wilson High.

The student protesters argued that moving Gibson because of the October brawl was unfair.

Gibson ``couldn't have stopped it - police couldn't stop it,'' said Solomon Corleone, a 17-year-old junior.

``I personally was there because I think they did him wrong,'' said Edinburgh Williams IV, a 16-year-old senior. ``It was like talking to a wall.

``It's going to be a rough year, for real,'' Corleone said. ``It's not even a half a year yet.''

News of the demonstration, followed by a pulled fire alarm that briefly emptied the school, and a later, unrelated fist fight in the cafeteria, caused several worried parents to pull their children out of school Friday for the rest of the day.

``I'm sick and tired of all this mess at this school,'' Mary Berryhill said after arriving at Wilson around 10:30 a.m. to pick up her 17-year-old daughter, Valerie.

``I don't know what they're going to do, but they're going to have to do something, because you just can't keep having this time and time again,'' Berryhill said. ``They need to get control. Somebody needs to get control.''

Cathy Malcolm also took home her 15-year-old daughter, Jana Randolph.

``I'm thinking about looking into private schools now,'' Malcolm said. ``I mean, this is ridiculous.''

Jana, a sophomore, didn't participate in the demonstration but said it appeared to be ``carried out pretty peacefully.''

Still, it set the tone for a day that was tense for most, scary for some.

``The kids were asked several times, repeatedly, to go to class,'' said Valerie Berryhill, a senior. ``But they were making so much noise that it was just a roar. You couldn't even hear anything.''

The school's staff was ready for the protest, said Kerri L. Albertson, spokeswoman for the Portsmouth Public Schools. She estimated that about 400 of Wilson's nearly 1,600 students participated.

``They wanted to be heard, they wanted someone to listen to their concerns, so they were told to go to the fieldhouse,'' Albertson said.

Afterward, Trumble met in a conference room with 10 to 12 of the student organizers who said they wanted Gibson to remain their principal, Albertson said. The remaining students were quieted and sent back to class, only to be interrupted by the false fire alarm.

``It's kinda nervous - it makes you nervous,'' Kenneth Collier, a 14-year-old freshman, said about recent weeks at the school.

``I'm not really happy,'' said his mother, Mary Collier, who was picking up Kenneth early. ``I don't know, really, how they can learn if they're scared.

``It's terrible, you know, his first year and all this going on. . . . I really hope they work it out, because he needs his education. He's not going to get it like this.''

Most students stayed at school.

``I didn't feel a need to leave early,'' senior Edinburgh said. ``They thought somebody was going to be stupid. But people acted mature. . . . This was the first I've ever seen everybody getting together to do something worthwhile.''

School let out at 2 p.m., mostly without incident. One bus was detained as police removed three students for an unspecified infraction. At least two were taken away in handcuffs.

Trumble later declined to comment at the school administration offices. His assistant, Joseph L. Wiggins, said that Trumble was in ``a lengthy conference'' and had a lot of important work to do for the School Board.

``It's been a bad day,'' Wiggins said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Students say transferring William E. Gibson Jr. is unfair.

Color Photo

MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Portsmouth schools spokeswoman Kerri L. Albertson says that students

wanted to be heard.

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