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

DATE: THURSDAY, August 10, 1995                   TAG: 9508100030
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LAWYER: WOMEN HAD RIGHT TO SPEAK OUT ABOUT SLURS

Two Franklin County women had a right to speak out about a teacher there who had been accused of making racial slurs, their lawyer told a federal judge Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser delayed ruling on the women's motion for summary judgment in a $2 million lawsuit filed against them and the Franklin County School Board by Lari Scruggs, who resigned from the Franklin County High School faculty after the allegations were made.

Kiser gave each side's lawyers one week each to file memorandums of law and responses to support arguments they made in court Tuesday.

Arelia Langhorne, a Lynchburg attorney representing Nadine Keen and Linda Edwards-White, wanted Kiser to resolve Scruggs' lawsuit against them before it goes to trial.

Keen, an English teacher at the school, reported the alleged remarks to school administrators. Edwards-White revived a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People soon after the incident.

Scruggs was suspended for three days after Keen made the complaint. Scruggs alleges that Keen and Edwards-White were dissatisfied with the punishment and alerted the media to the alleged incident.

Scruggs resigned after a March meeting in which she was suspended for 10 more days and told that her contract would not be renewed. Keen also resigned at the end of the school year.

Langhorne said Scruggs has no case against Keen and Edwards-White.

She said the two had a right to voice their concerns about remarks allegedly made by Scruggs in response to questions about a Black History Month program and interracial dating two students asked her during a study hall in February 1993.

The students relayed the conversation to Keen, who complained to the principal that Scruggs referred to the history program as a "nigger" program and lectured the two white students against interracial dating. Scruggs has denied using the epithet.

Langhorne said allowing the case to continue against the two women would have "a chilling effect," leaving residents of Franklin County scared to speak out.

"People get offended and they have to have a way to vent what it is they're offended about," Langhorne said.

Carrington Thompson, one of Scruggs' lawyers, argued that the case should be allowed to proceed. He said the actions of Keen and Edwards-White were tantamount to a conspiracy against Scruggs.

"They wanted her punished for what she had said," Thompson said, and didn't think the original three-day suspension was sufficient.

by CNB