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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 9, 1993                   TAG: 9307090228
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

TWO CITY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS DISCRIMINATED

Sylvia Richardson, principal of Bellevue Model Elementary School, has said she put white students together in classes for their "social and emotional development," according to an Education Department letter to Richmond School Superintendent Lucille M. Brown.

Frances McClenney, the Ginter Park Elementary School principal, has said white students were grouped together after she received requests for class assignments from black and white parents, the letter said.

The federal Education Department said the resulting segregation at the predominantly black elementary schools violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on the basis of race, color or national origin.

The federal Education Department's Office for Civil Rights investigated the so-called "clustering" because the Richmond public school system receives about $14 million in federal money.

A black Bellevue parent, the Rev. Hylan Q. Carter, complained Dec. 1 about the make-up of classes at his son's school, and Brown reassigned students at both schools Feb. 24.

The federal agency's review found the Richmond school division "has taken remedial steps to correct the violations."

"The Office for Civil Rights states that the matter is now resolved," Brown said at a news conference.

"Now we can once again focus completely on our important mission of educating our students."

"Beginning with the 1993-94 school year, the Division has made assurances that it will use only racially neutral factors such as grade progression, instructional needs, gender and age of students as the basis for assigning students to classes," Brown said.