10 The Hampton Roads Messenger Our Education


Volume 8 Number 10


June 2014


New Civil Rights Suit Calls School Closures Discriminatory


and unequal,” says Jadine Johnson, a staff attorney at the Advancement Project. “Inequity and discrimination still occurs in many schools across the country.” In Chicago, Johnson says, black students make up 40 percent of the district enrollment but were 88 percent of those affected by the 111 school closures the city has undertaken since 2001. In Newark, African-Amer- ican students comprise 52.8 percent of the district enrollment, and 73.4 percent of those whose schools were closed. In New Orleans, African- American students are 82 percent of the district’s schoolchildren, but 96.6 percent of those whose schools closed. “When you look at who’s impacted, you realize this is more than


just


reform. This is discrimination and this is abuse,” Johnson says.


turnaround


School closures are one of four options


outlined by the Chicago students rallied in the spring of 2013 to protest 53 proposed school closures. Scott Olson/Getty Images


of Education, schools are still both separate and civil


unequal.


BY JULIANNE HING | COLORLINES.COM Sixty years after Brown v. Board and


Community


identified a key force that’s aggravated the inequity:


rights groups say they’ve school closures. On


May 14, on the same week the nation recognized the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark school desegregation ruling, the civil rights group Advancement Project and the national community group network Journey for Justice Alliance filed three


federal complaints with the


Two Indian American Teens Declared Co-champions of National Spelling Bee


U.S. Department of Education and Department of


Justice alleging that


school closures in Newark, Chicago and New Orleans discriminate against African-American students.


“We’re in a new era of separate


federal government for transforming schools deemed failing based on their test scores. The other options include firing a school’s principal and staff and rehiring no more than half the school’s staff, and restarting a school and handing it over to a charter school. School closure is typically seen as a measure of last resort only for those school sites beyond repair. But it’s all too frequently used in communities of color, says Jitu Brown, director of the Journey for Justice Alliance.


What’s more, says Johnson,


“When you pull back the data, even SCHOOL CLOSURES PAGE 14


Scholarship Watch The Teens Drive Smart Video Contest


Ansun Sujoe (left) and Sriram Hathwar BY SUNITA SOHRABJI Ansun Sujoe, from Fort Worth,


Texas, and Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, N.Y. – the odds-on favorite to win this year’s competition – both looked a bit grim, even as confetti rained down upon them, and a standing crowd loudly cheered, perhaps realizing that they had to share their long sought-after victory. The boys clung tightly to each side the sole trophy, as members of their family joined them onstage.


This is the seventh consecutive


year that Indian Americans have won the Scripps National Spelling Bee. In


total, Indian Americans have won the coveted trophy 14 times. The annual event has not had two co-champions since 1962.


Jacques Bailley, host of the annual


competition, announced that Sujoe and Hathwar would receive a $30,000 cash prize, a $2,500 savings bond and complete reference library from publisher Merriam-Webster, and a $1,200 set of reference works from Encyclopedia Brittanica.


And – perhaps most importantly – Sujoe and Hathwar will each receive their own inscribed trophy.


The Teens Drive Smart Video Contest is now accepting entries until June 19. Every year, teens across the country submit videos showing us all how to be safer behind the wheel. Now is your chance! If you’ve got a compelling, creative idea of how to show teens to be safer drivers, make a short video (25 or 55 seconds) about it, then register and enter it here for a chance to be a 2014 Teens Drive Smart Video Contest winner!


The top filmmaker will receive a $20,000 college scholarship; check out all the other prizes here.


Plus, your video could be broadcast by Bridgestone Americas as a public service announcement on TV stations around the country. Ten finalists will win a new set of tires.


Be sure to look around the site www.teensdrivesmart.com and read more about the contest. Then grab your camera and get going!


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