THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 18, 1994 TAG: 9410180313
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
When a power outage forced Dare County schools to open two hours late Monday, Manteo High School Principal Linda Holmes postponed a morning meeting with 20 student protesters.
But the fire alarms, bomb threats and student walkouts which prompted the principal to call the meeting last week seemed to have ceased as students returned to classes Monday morning.
Teachers and a sheriff's deputy continued to monitor the halls.
But students seemed calmer - and more muted - about addressing their complaints against new administrative policies.
Some students criticized their classmates for the disruptive methods they used to bring attention to their complaints.
``I'm not against people speaking their minds or criticizing policies. But they have to do it in an intelligent way if they really want to accomplish anything,'' said junior Ali Velazquez, a writer and photographer for the student newspaper and representative on the Student Government Association. ``They really can't think all these policies are going to change just because they want them to. That's just not going to happen. They can only achieve their ends by going through different means.''
When school opened Aug. 26, administrators announced several changes, including longer class periods, new locks on the lockers and a ban against book bags in class. An armed sheriff's department ``resource officer'' also was assigned to the school part-time this fall. And attendance policies, exam exemption privileges and other school rules also were altered slightly.
On Oct. 7, workers installed locks on the lockers for the first time in the school's 11-year history. Some students were upset because administrators retained the combinations - thereby giving school officials access to students' personal belongings. Other students complained about the resulting ban against book bags: administrators said that with locked lockers, students no longer needed to carry satchels to class. Book bags between desks - and in the cafeteria - are a fire hazard, Holmes said.
Last Monday - the first day the book-bag ban was enforced - the school fire alarm was set off three separate times, causing the entire school to be evacuated, the school's main office received a call from the cafeteria, saying a bomb was about to explode and about 50 students walked out before school was dismissed.
On Tuesday, three more false firealarms went off. Then, a senior student came into school late with a note he had signed himself. When administrators told him he could not return to class, he offered to get a note from his doctor but school officials told him to leave the grounds or be arrested. Police later arrested the student and charged him with disorderly conduct. School administrators suspended him for three days.
The student, who returned to school Friday, said he did not mean for his arrest to incite other students to action. But at least 40 students walked out of the school - and staged a sit-in on the front lawn.
Holmes called a meeting last Wednesday to address the students' concerns. But time ran out before all the issues were covered. So the principal scheduled Monday's meeting with 20 of the 40 students who walked out last week. After the power failure canceled that meeting, Holmes did not immediately reschedule it.
``If anything is going to get accomplished, everyone at this school will have to be involved,'' said junior Rachel Cooper. ``I agree with a lot of what the protesters were complaining about. But I worried that with all of the commotion they caused last week no one would listen to them.
``I think it's good the students finally realized that by being organized they could really get something done,'' Cooper said. ``But it would've been a whole lot better if we could've all started out that way.''
Some students said they tried the accepted channels of protest by submitting a petition against the book-bag ban to the principal last month. More than 500 of the school's roughly 830 students signed the petition, urging administrators to change the new policy. But a faculty leadership team denied the request.
And student government representatives have not addressed any of the policies.
Instead, Velazquez said, some students are trying to encourage their peers to talk to administrators rather than disrupting any more school time.
``We need to let our classmates know that what they're doing is dumb, stupid and immature,'' Velazquez said. ``They say they want to have our freedoms and privileges back. But by pulling fire alarms and calling in bomb threats, they're causing us to lose some of those freedoms we have left. The administration doesn't trust us. It's not fair to the students who aren't doing anything.''
Senior Jennifer Perkins agreed.
``The majority of students think the occurrences of this past week are ridiculous,'' Perkins said in a letter to a newspaper. ``I do not understand why a student would care if there is an armed officer in our school unless the officer would have a reason to be suspicious of the student. ... I do not think not being able to carry a backpack to class is that much of an inconvenience, either.
``What this entire situation comes down to is some people just can't accept change,'' said Perkins. ``Because of these few people, the rest of the school is being prevented from learning, which is what we students are there for in the first place.'' by CNB