
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 27, 1993                   TAG: 9305270025
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BY MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FRANKLIN SCHOOLS EXONERATED

The state Department of Education has decided that Franklin County school officials were not at fault in the handling of two winter incidents at the county high school that touched off racial controversy.

Though the county "seems to be grappling with issues of racial harmony," said Joseph Spagnolo, state superintendent of public instruction, "there does not seem to be any reason to believe that the school division is the instigator of any community racial tension."

Linda White, a county resident who recently revived the county branch of the NAACP, filed a complaint in March asking the state to investigate two alleged incidents of racial name-calling at Franklin County High School. She called for the state's help because, she said, the local school system could not police itself.

In a letter dated May 17 and sent to White and to Superintendent Leonard Gereau, Spagnolo said that after a "careful review," his staff decided that school officials had done an "appropriate" investigation of the incidents.

Spagnolo commended Gereau for welcoming a federal mediator to the county for racial talks this spring between school officials and concerned parents, and for instituting a plan to promote multicultural learning and diversity.

Spagnolo said his department would not forward White's complaints to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. Neither will they refer them to the state's Council on Human Relations, his compliance chief, Thomas Elliott, said Wednesday.

Gereau, under fire for months from White and some other black county residents, said Wednesday, "I'm pleased with the state report. I'm really gratified by it."

White was unhappy that the state accepted Gereau's account of school findings on the incidents, instead of coming in and doing its own inquiry.

She wanted the state to look into how the system handled allegations that white high school math teacher Lari Scruggs called a February Black History Month event a "nigger" program. Scruggs, who denies using the word, is resigning from school.

Scruggs also was accused of telling two white girls that she was against interracial dating. That allegation seemed to be confirmed in a Monday statement by Gereau. Of Scruggs, he said "her decision to question interracial dating was inappropriate."

In a second incident referred to in White's complaint to the state, a white high school student was said to have used the word "nigger" in referring to a black teacher. The teacher was not present at the time but heard a report of it later.

Spagnolo said his staff found "no clear wrongdoing" in the school's handling of that incident, either.

by CNB