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

DATE: TUESDAY, August 9, 1994                   TAG: 9408090100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WEDOWEE, ALA.                                LENGTH: Short

ALA. `PROM' PRINCIPAL REASSIGNED

The high school principal who opposed interracial dating at the prom was reassigned to an office job Monday, and a white principal and black assistant principal were named to replace him.

The Randolph County School Board voted to move Principal Hulond Humphries to an administrative position in the board's central office. He will oversee the rebuilding of Randolph County High School, which was gutted by fire over the weekend.

The voting, by acclamation, followed a closed-door executive session.

There was no immediate comment from Humphries, who had been principal for 25 years.

The vote represented an about-face for the board. Over the protest of the board's only black member, its other five members had been backing Humphries.

Humphries set off a racial tempest when he told students Feb. 24 that the prom would not be held because interracial couples planned to attend. He relented the next day, but the protest widened when the school board suspended him March 14, then reinstated him after two weeks.

The 680-student high school, integrated some 25 years ago, is about 38 percent black.

The board named agriculture teacher Wayne Wortham principal. It also approved the appointment of Lucille Burns, a teacher at nearby Woodland High School, as a second assistant principal.

by CNB