ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020036
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
A POLICY OF RACIAL EQUITY prevents Jasmine Gunn from attending either nearby Forest Park Elementary or Fairview Elementary, which is across the street from her home.
Jasmine Gunn attended a preschool program at Forest Park Elementary, a magnet school in Roanoke, this past year. She wants to go back to Forest Park for kindergarten when school opens next month.
But she won't be allowed to attend the school, because she is a biracial child.
Five-year-old Jasmine lives in Westwood Village, an apartment complex in Northwest Roanoke that is only about a mile from Forest Park.
She also lives just across the street from Fairview Elementary, another magnet school. But she can't go to kindergarten there, either - because of her race.
Instead, Jasmine will have to attend either Roanoke Academy for Mathematics & Science, a magnet school that is more than two miles from her home, or Fishburn Park Elementary, a magnet school across the city in Southwest Roanoke.
Jasmine will have to travel past both Fairview and Forest Park, the schools closest to her home, to get to Roanoke Academy, where she likely will enroll.
"I didn't think you could decide things by race," said Cathleen Duley, Jasmine's mother. "I don't think it's right. They're not looking at her as an individual, but at her color."
Duley said the rules governing admissions and racial balance at the city's magnet schools teach children that race makes a difference - and that some are being denied opportunities because of their color.
"I'm getting tired of being asked what color she is. I don't look at her as white or black. To me, she's just Jasmine," said her mother, who is white. Jasmine's father is black.
Under federal guidelines for magnet schools, there are two racial classifications: minority and nonminority, said Sandra Burks, director of Roanoke's magnet program.
All minorities - black, Asians, Hispanics and others, including biracial children such as Jasmine - are grouped into one category.
Because Forest Park and Fairview have a high percentage of minority children, they are seeking white children to achieve a better racial balance. In the past year, nearly 89 percent of Forest Park's and 60 percent of Fairview's pupils were black.
The magnet schools are part of Roanoke's voluntary desegregation effort. The goal is to establish innovative educational programs at predominantly black schools, thereby attracting white students. Federal guidelines require the city to try to achieve a 50-50 racial balance in magnet schools to help desegregate the school system, which is 40 percent black.
Like Forest Park and Fairview, Roanoke Academy also has a predominantly black enrollment. But Jasmine can go there because she lives in its attendance zone. Roanoke schools' attendance zones are only based in part on students' proximity to schools. Other factors, such as numerically balanced enrollments, also come into play. Other children within magnet schools' attendance zones can go to them regardless of their race.
Two conditions must be met for magnet schools to admit children from outside their attendance areas: The schools must have the space, and the admission must not cause the racial split to widen.
School Board member Marilyn Curtis said Thursday she will investigate Jasmine's case to determine whether any exceptions or adjustments can be made to the admission procedures.
"I would like to see her go to the closest school, if possible," she said, "but that might not be possible because of the guidelines.
"We're getting hit from both ends. It's hard to please everyone."
She cited the recent complaint by Kay Hale, a mother who wants more black students bused to predominantly white schools outside their neighborhoods. School officials said they are already busing hundreds of black children to elementary schools in predominantly white neighborhoods to help improve racial balance.
But Hale said she will file a complaint with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights because she claims the city is not doing enough to achieve a better balance.
Jasmine's case has similarities to another involving a biracial child last year. In that case, school officials initially denied the child admission to Westside, citing federal guidelines for racial balance. The girl lived in Roanoke Academy's attendance zone and had been attending the school for two years. Unlike Jasmine, the child, who was in the third grade, wanted to switch schools.
After the mother complained, the child was admitted to Westside.
Duley said school officials say Jasmine can attend Fishburn Park, a magnet school that is 62 percent white, but she's not interested.
"I'm not going to send her to Fishburn Park so they can just have another black face," she said. "I don't want to put my child where it fits the city's quota."
Jasmine was allowed to attend the preschool program at Forest Park because it is not part of the magnet program and is not governed by the same admission policies.
"She liked the school, and that's where she wants to go for kindergarten," Duley said. "She knows the school, and most of her friends in preschool will go to Forest Park this year."
Duley said teachers in the preschool told her about magnet schools and Forest Park's technology program.
"Magnet schools appealed to me because I care about Jasmine's education," Duley said. "She is really into computers, and Forest Park has a lot of technology."
Burks said Jasmine would have been eligible to attend Highland Park magnet school, but Duley didn't apply for a magnet school placement for her daughter until after the deadline in mid-March, and the kindergarten classes were already filled by then.
She said there probably won't be any space for additional kindergartners at Forest Park this year, because the classes there will be reduced to 15 children under a new plan for smaller classes in five inner-city schools.
Duley said she thinks the school system needs to revise school attendance zones to achieve better racial balance and to start treating the children as individuals - not on the basis of their color.
"It's not right the way they're doing it," she said. "Some children are being denied admission to schools because of their race."
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON STAFF Cathleen Duley is unhappy that herby CNB5-year-old daughter, Jasmine, is required to to attend a school at
least two miles from her home. color