Are

minority students treated differently by

teachers, administrators and classmates from

non-minority students in Fayette County schools?

Yes, said many parents attending Saturday's

meeting with Fayette School Superintendent John

DeCotis. The meeting in Peachtree City was

organized by the Fayette chapter of the National

Association for the Advancement of Colored People

(NAACP).

Parents

cited incidents that affected them and their

children personally, such as perceived

"discrepancies" in school discipline

policies, charges of lack of responsiveness and

compassion on the part of teachers and

principals, and the disparity in Iowa test scores

among schools in the system.

Gwen

McDaniel, who has a daughter at Flat Rock Middle

School, expressed concern over the low Iowa

scores attained at the school.

"We

have come up with a plan, and hired a school

improvement person," DeCotis said.

"This is the first year we have been

involved in the process." According to

DeCotis, designated schools have plans for

improvement available for review from the

principal.

Concerning

discipline discrepancies, DeCotis said the Office

of Civil Rights annually checks every school

system. Based on the last completed report on

Fayette County schools, there were no

discrepancies, according to DeCotis. "We

take these complaints very seriously,"

DeCotis added. "We will look at the results

for this year, and see where we are."

The

one area where everyone agreed is the continued

need for open dialogue and diversity training,

not just for faculty and staff, but also for

students. "We need to bring it to a new

level," noted one parent.

DeCotis

acknowledged that "students come form from

varied backgrounds... We do spend time on

this." But he also admitted that there is a

lot of peer pressure in groups, despite the

school system's most concerted efforts.

Dr.

Dwight Hooper complained about the "lack of

responsiveness to parents."

"Parents

go in (to the school or principal) and they are

pretty much dismissed," Hooper told DeCotis.

Hooper added that it's "not always a black

and white issue."

As

far as differences in handling discipline issues,

Hooper cited cases where a student may brush up

against someone and be punished, while another

student may get hit in the head and "no one

knows who did it."

DeCotis

admitted that Georgia House Bill 605, which was

passed last year and gives teachers the authority

to remove an unruly student from the classroom,

also forced administrators to look at their

support of their teachers.

"The

administration is caught in the middle,"

DeCotis said. "The administration feels

pressure to support the teacher..."

On

the other hand, parents of a child who causes an

incident requiring disciplinary action often feel

their child's punishment was too severe, while

the victim's parents feel that not enough

punishment was meted out, according to DeCotis.

Edward

Johnson, president of the Fayette County Branch

of the NAACP, called on DeCotis and the people

attending the meeting to keep the dialogue open.

"This is a give and take relationship,"

he said.

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