Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 20, 1994 TAG: 9405200075
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WEDOWEE, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
The Justice Department stated in court documents that students at Randolph County High School told investigators of an unwritten ban instituted by Principal Hulond Humphries.
On Tuesday, the federal government asked a judge to make the county School Board show why Humphries should not be fired or transferred. The request came as part of a longstanding school desegregation case against the county.
Humphries, principal of the east Alabama school for 25 years, has been at the center of an uproar since threatening to cancel last month's prom if mixed-race couples attended.
But an investigative report filed in support of the department's request charged that Humphries' prom remarks were not an isolated incident.
A white female student who dated a black student said Humphries warned she "can do better, that no white man will want her back after the black boy dumps her and that she would be the only white person at their family reunion," the report states.
Several students also reported that a white teacher reminded them interracial dating was "a violation of Mr. Humphries' policy," the department charged.
Randolph County school Superintendent Dale McKay said Humphries does not make policy and that he had not heard of any ban on mixed-race dating.
"I would certainly hope that's not true," he said.
Humphries, who repeatedly has refused public comment, did not return phone calls. McKay said Humphries refuses to discuss the situation even with him, citing the advice of a lawyer.
by CNB