ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702240025
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on February 25, 1997.
Clarification
In a story on racial issues at Christiansburg High School in Sunday's
Current, parent Penny Franklin was quoted as saying things haven't
changed since she attended the school two decades ago. She was referring
to problems such as not having enough black teachers or counselors, not
specifically racial tension.
Open the doors of Christiansburg High School this month, and the first thing you'll see is a large yellow banner hanging from the hallway ceiling. The words "Black History Month" stand out in bold letters.
Reminders of the month are everywhere: most of the faculty wear Black History pins and a large window display on the second floor pays homage to black leaders, inventors and culture.
After school on a Tuesday, the auditorium shakes with sounds of stomping feet and singing voices. The Black Pearls are practicing their step routine in front of the empty seats. They step and clap their way through precise rhythms reminiscent of African folk dances.
Other students in the Black Awareness Club rehearse their speeches about black inventors or leaders, trying to speak without shaky, nervous voices as they prepare for an hour-long school assembly.
"I've had teachers I don't even know come up to me and say how good the Black History display looks" and how eager they were to see the club's program, said Juanita Buchannon, president of the all-black club.
Last Thursday was the first time the school had held a Black History program during school hours.
This is also the year that the Montgomery County School system - and Christiansburg High specifically - has been under scrutiny for the very problem programs like this is trying to dispel: racial tension.
There is still racism in schools, insists the Rev. Larry Carter, "but it's camouflaged, and children pick up on that. We need to start treating people as individuals and get away from the stereotypes."
Carter and other members of the area chapter of the National Association of Colored People have met twice with the School Board since the school year began. A bomb is ticking, they told the board, and it's going to take drastic action to prevent serious problems between black and white students.
The NAACP members spoke out after the school system reassigned the only black administrator from a middle school to the central office. They said the schools needed to hire more black teachers and guidance counselors, and that the School Board needed to look into how black students are treated in school.
This month, the School Board responded by asking the superintendent to investigate discipline records from Christiansburg High and Middle schools. The administration will look at the last three years to find out how students were punished for incidents like fighting, and whether the punishments for black and white students were equitable. Eventually, the study could expand to all middle and high schools.
Assistant Superintendent Jim Sellers said the school system will likely hire consultants to do the work. It will include hours of reading hand-written notes to understand the background of each incident. Sellers said he wasn't sure whether any conclusive results will come out of it.
At Christiansburg High, 7 percent of the students, about 70, are black - a higher percentage than any New River Valley high school.
Some faculty and students say problems at the school are common to any group of teen-agers. Some black students, however, believe they have been hurt specifically because of race.
One remembers the first of many times she heard a white student mumble "nigger." Another talked of a T-shirt a student wore to school displaying a black woman hunched over picking cotton and the phrase "100% cotton."
Just a few weeks ago, a student found the letters "KKK" spray-painted on a wall near the gym. She told a coach, and it was painted over a few days later.
Every morning during February, Black Awareness Club Vice President Bryant Woodson talks to the entire student body over the loud speaker about prominent black historical figures.
He's proud of the effort, but sometimes feels "like I'm saying it for no reason." He points to the first day in February when the club passed out Black History Month bookmarks in homerooms. As students filled the halls headed to first period, Woodson saw "tons" of bookmarks torn up and thrown on the floor.
Some students, like Woodson, choose to ignore the racial slurs, and the students who use them.
Others develop a reputation for refusing to put up with racial slurs. They fight or report the offending students to teachers and administrators.
"I'm supposed to be proud of this place, but the only thing I'm proud of are my friends. That's it," said Nikki Calfe, a senior known for confronting those who offend her and her friends. "We stick together. That's the only way we'll get things changed."
Penny Franklin, club member Nicolette McDaniel's mother, said nothing much has changed since she went to Christiansburg High two decades ago.
"It's the same people with the same ideas and the open, outright, blunt racism," she said.
Her biggest frustration has been how the faculty deals with the problem. Some faculty members just don't know how to act toward black students, she said, and label them as troublemakers without looking into the cause of school tensions.
"Nine times out of 10, if there's a fight, black kids will be pulled away and accused," she said.
But Buchannon said she thinks most problems are dealt with fairly, and that there aren't as many racial problems as when she was a freshman three years ago.
Principal George Porterfield said he uses a set of guidelines that lists about 40 offenses and the corresponding punishments. But there has been an increasing emphasis on examining the factors behind a problem, he said.
If, for example, a student who has never been in trouble before ends up in a fight, he would get a lighter punishment than someone who continually fights.
Problems arise when parents or students aren't able to hear the full story, he said.
"We need to do a better job with parents and the community about the events that are going on," Porterfield said. "It's a fine line between releasing that information you know would clear it up and violating confidentiality."
Veteran teacher Debbie Sherman-Lee said she doesn't see the black-white tension as much as she sees the adolescent grouping common to any school. What she does see is more fighting in general, between two blacks or two whites, and between both boys and girls.
According to a report since the beginning of this school year, Christiansburg disciplines anywhere from one to nine students each month.
Ask any student about the social dynamics, and they can tell you: the alternative "freaks" who dye their hair and pierce their bodies don't get along with the country "rednecks" who don't like the blacks, who don't hang with the "preps," and so on.
Senior Adam Shephard, who is white, calls himself a "redneck." He's got two Rebel flags flying from the back of his "jacked-up pickup," but he rolls them up when he's around blacks.
Because he has black friends, Shephard said, his white friends act differently around him. "They won't say the n-word around me. A lot of times they're just saying it anyway because they're trying to act big around their friends."
Sherman-Lee, who is black, first integrated into white schools as a freshman at Christiansburg High in the '60s. Back then, she said, most kids got along because they grew up together. It's not such a small, close-knit community any longer.
More and more, said guidance counselor Sally Bohland, students are moving here from larger cities like New York or Orlando, each with different values that may clash with students from this area.
"Because this community is becoming more of a mix now," she said, "that blend of values and cultures puts a strain on the school."
Rumors and misinformation don't help, Bohland said. She often encourages parents to get involved with school activities and find out what's really going on with their child.
Bryant Woodson, who moved here from a predominantly black school in Orlando, Fla., said it would take "a lot of work" to bring harmony to this school.
"A lot of kids go by what their parents are or how they're brought up. I doubt if they'll ever come together."
Many black students said they want to see an African-American studies class to help understanding between the races. Porterfield said if a teacher was willing to develop a curriculum for the class, he'd be "open to it."
"As a black community," said Franklin, "I don't feel we're connected enough to know what's going on with each other and each other's kids. We need to come as a community to say, 'Look, we see a problem.'''
People need to get involved with school PTAs, attend school board meetings and talk with teachers on a regular basis, said the Rev. Larry Carter. Churches - black and white - need to work together and with the school to provide role models and activities for teens.
"Blacks are now seeing the problem," Carter said. "Something big is going to happen and it needs to be constructive."
Adam Sheppard said he doesn't understand why most white kids don't support the blacks at Christiansburg, or why they have to be prejudiced.
"You got to put yourself in their shoes - I wouldn't want to be put down."
LENGTH: Long : 180 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM STAFF. 1. The Black Awareness Club gave eachby CNBChristiansburg High student a bookmark commemorating Black History
Month. (ran on NRV-1). 2. The Black Pearls rehearse their step
routine after school a few weeks before the show. 3. Juanita
"Ladybug" Buchannon, president of the Black Awareness Club at CHS,
leads an organizational meeting in Janurary. 4. Students await their
turn to take the stage for the African Fashion Review during Carol
Crawford Smith dance performance. 5. Students make their final
appearance on stage during the African Fashion Review as part of the
Black History Month program held at Christiansburg High School.
color.