By PAT NEWMAN
pnewman@thecitizennews.com

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.