Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 28, 1993 TAG: 9304280356
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Federal mediator Frank Tyler's coming back to Franklin County around May 11 for a second round of talks on racial discontent that sprang from a winter incident at Franklin County High School.
He expects to spend nearly a week this time, as he did on his first trip to the county early this month.
That visit closed with a marathon meeting with school officials, NAACP officers, parents and other county residents from early Friday night, April 9, to about 1 a.m. Saturday morning.
Tyler said he was overwhelmed by the number of people who wanted to talk with him that week. "People need someone to listen," he said Tuesday.
This time, he plans to see people he did not have a chance to talk with last time, and he intends to hold another meeting of the larger discussion group, including members of the local clergy.
Tyler, a senior conciliation specialist with the Justice Department's Community Relations Service, does not know what will come of the talks.
Everyone involved, he said, wants a forum on school policy on employee dismissals. Tyler said such a meeting could involve officials of the state Department of Education, the NAACP and, perhaps, a facilitator from the local bar association.
Racial tensions grew out of reports that in early February Lari Scruggs, a white high-school math teacher, referred to a Black History Month assembly as a "nigger" program and advised two white girls against dating blacks. Scruggs has denied using the offensive word.
She submitted her resignation in March and will leave the system at the end of the school year, but school officials, saying employee matters were confidential, did not announce her resignation until last week.
Tyler said he has not talked with Scruggs. "To me, that's just the triggering incident." He said other matters have been brought to him.
"There's more accusations, but whether or not they're founded or not, that's what we have to get on the table," he said.
He said he has kept U.S. attorneys apprised of his work in the county.
Black parents began meeting last winter when they questioned whether school officials had acted decisively on the Scruggs allegation. The county branch of the NAACP was revitalized after they shared other accounts of racial problems at county schools.
"Some situations have happened that have not been addressed, and people don't know There's a lot of people in Franklin County of good will. Frank Tyler Federal mediator where to go," Tyler said Tuesday. "Maybe the schools have to reach out and get the parents involved."
He said he has talked with county residents about the possibility of bringing people around a table to develop a strategy of solving racial problems. Whenever possible, he said, he will encourage the use of consultants from local institutions, like Ferrum College.
Or, he said, the county could undertake a formal mediation process.
Under mediation, participants would be subject to Community Relations Service ground rules - including confidentiality of information given to a federal mediator, secrecy while mediation sessions are under way and, perhaps, the formation of negotiating teams.
Tyler said there also has been talk of a rumor control system and a session with news representatives on how they report about racial conflict.
Tyler, working out of Philadelphia, has mediated racial tensions in big cities and small towns for the federal government for 17 years. Some of his cases lasted two years.
He said Franklin County seems little different from other rural counties and reminds him of his home county of Delaware County, Pa., south of Philadelphia. He's talked with Franklin County gas station attendants, civic leaders - everyone he could to get a sampling of racial attitudes.
"There's a lot of people in Franklin County of good will," he said. "The people I met - and I met a number of them while I was there - were interested and supportive and of good will, and wanted to do something, but didn't know what."
by CNB