Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 22, 1993 TAG: 9312220144
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Marcus Bingham was singing the school's spirit song when he passed another pupil in the Cave Spring Junior High School cafeteria.
"I got the spirit, yeah, yeah, yeah," Marcus sang.
"But you're a nigger, yeah, yeah, yeah," the other pupil replied.
Bingham, one of nine black pupils in a school of 939 sixth- to ninth-graders, is new to Cave Spring. A transfer student from Roanoke's Ruffner Middle School, he had felt welcome when he arrived, he said. Until this.
Samuel Banks also is new to Cave Spring. He, too, is black. And, like Bingham, he feels unwelcome.
But not just because of his white classmates. Racial issues, Banks has discovered, are not always black and white. Sometimes, he found, everybody shares the blame.
When Banks left Richmond with his mother several months ago for an upper-middle-class community in Southwest Roanoke County, he traded a racially integrated school for one so overwhelmingly white that he is the only black pupil in all of his classes.
Although none of the white pupils called Banks names, he quickly heard about racial problems that other black pupils were having. Emotions escalated after two youngsters - one black and one white - got into a hallway fistfight over an alleged racial slur. Rumors circulated that the white youth called the black youth "nigger."
Feelings grew even hotter after a pupil heard that a girl had been expelled by administrators and told that she was not wanted there because of her friendship with black youngsters. Many pupils - both black and white - planned a protest. Banks agreed to risk suspension and join them.
Now, he's sorry he did.
It turned out that neither story was true. A black pupil did fight with a white pupil - but no racial slur was uttered. And the second incident turned out to be no more than a rumor.
Luckily for Banks, Principal Steve Boyer interceded before the young people could stage their protest - a walkout that might have involved 50 pupils. Banks discovered the truth during a meeting Boyer called with all of the black pupils to hear their concerns.
Now, Banks said, he feels completely isolated at his new school.
"I feel like I have no side to go to, because they betrayed me," he said.
Race relations at any school can be tricky. Roanoke County - where the population is more than 97 percent white and only 427 black children attend public schools - walks an even tighter rope.
Throw in the normal angst and rebellion that mark adolescence, school administrators say, and it is not always easy to separate legitimate complaints of racism from teen-age turmoil.
"A lot of these problems don't even start at school," Boyer said. "They start at the mall, at home, at parties. A lot of it is a spillover."
Often, Boyer said, "stuff called `racial' is really adolescent. Somebody loses their temper" and throws in a racially insulting word.
That's not to say that racial incidents don't occur at Cave Spring. They do. Even school administrators concede they have had to discipline pupils on occasion for uttering racial slurs or creating racially insulting artwork in class.
Fights have erupted in hallways, at bus stops and during field trips. But Boyer maintains there have been only six or seven verifiable incidents of racism reported over the past several years, and that most of the 900-plus white pupils share their school happily and peacefully with their black classmates.
While those on all sides say the problems have involved a limited number of pupils - perhaps only 20 - black youths and their parents still worry that Boyer and Mike Brancati, one of the school's two assistant principals, underplay the scope and seriousness of the problem.
"Everybody's looking the other way," said Diane Jernigan, whose daughter, Monica, has been complaining of racial harassment from her white Cave Spring classmates for three years.
Boyer tells her that she must have witnesses or he can't do anything to help. But often, Monica said, the remarks are not heard by others, or witnesses present conflicting stories.
"They're not right out there," Monica's father, Donald Jernigan, said. "I shouldn't have to go out there two or three times a year and complain about the same thing. My daughter's out there for one thing. She's out there to get an education."
Monica says she has been called a "nigger" several times since she entered Cave Spring as a sixth-grader. Each time, she complained to the school administration. She has also complained about a group of pupils who pasted a magazine picture of a black baby with a bullet in its head on a poster during art class.
Other pupils complained of similar problems. Eighth-grader NayeDe Paige said she told an assistant principal last year about two chairs in the auditorium with racially insulting graffiti. The graffiti never was removed, she said.
White youngsters who are friends with black pupils also complain of harassment. Ninth-grader Alison Burgio said that, because of her friendship with Monica, other pupils call her a "wigger," a term for white people who befriend blacks or adopt clothing and music popular with blacks.
One youngster allegedly walks down the hallways yelling "death to wiggers."
Boyer said he learned only recently that pupils were not reporting all of the racial remarks made at school. He knew nothing about the auditorium chairs, he said. He promised to have the graffiti removed immediately.
He denies accusations that administrators at his school don't take the issue seriously.
Standard discipline for using a racial slur, he said, is two to three days of in-school detention - the same punishment for using any term of disrespect.
"I really try to look at it as not a black-white issue," he said. "I try to look at it as a right-wrong issue and an issue of respect."
Boyer said he counsels pupils involved in racial incidents about how to behave appropriately. During the recent flare-up of tensions, he organized a meeting of white pupils and black pupils so they could air their grievances and work on improving race relations.
"I think we had a real productive meeting," he said.
Not all of the pupils agree.
"It didn't do any good," said Heather Hess, one of the white pupils offended by racial remarks. "It was just a bunch of yelling back and forth."
Monica Jernigan said she thought it was helpful to get her feelings out.
"We're mad, but not the way we used to feel," she said.
Boyer said he will continue to hold meetings among pupils as needed. He cautioned, however, against taking the recent outburst as an indication of a schoolwide problem.
"Our kids, for the most part, get along very well together," he said.
Bringing the pupils together to air their feelings is not enough, the Jernigans insist. They want to talk with the other parents.
Racism, they say, begins at home.
"Let me sit face-to-face with the guy whose son is calling my daughter all these names," Donald Jernigan said.
Other parents share his concern.
"You just kind of wonder, what are the parents teaching them at home?" said Barbara Bibby, whose son, Mike, is one of the black pupils at Cave Spring.
The parents of white pupils accused of racial incidents at Cave Spring declined to be interviewed and refused permission for their children to be interviewed. Because the school would not furnish phone numbers for those families, some could be contacted only through Boyer. He said he called the families to ask if they would be interviewed. None agreed.
Whether they know it or not, the children of racist parents also suffer, said seventh-grader Desmond Nance.
He said he feels sorry for the pupils who use racial slurs, because their parents fail to teach them better behavior.
They may not know how, said Samuel Banks' mother, Debra. Often, white parents tell her that they don't teach their children to be racist. But that's not enough, she tells them.
"You have to teach them not to be racist," she said. "You have to be proactive."
by CNB