A mid-meeting disruption brought tonight's Wake County school board meeting to a halt with a group of chanting protesters refusing to relinquish the microphone and police arresting more than a dozen of them.
During what had been a relatively quiet meeting, speaker Carolyn Coleman began a loud complaint to the board, then brought more than two dozen protesters forward to join her in chants of "forward ever! backwards never!"
School board chairman Ron Margiotta threatened the protesters with arrest. But wielding signs and surrounded by media photographers, the protesters continued shouting and clapping until police and security moved in.
Police arrested 16 protestors, leading them out of the school board chambers in plastic wrist restraints and handcuffs and loading them on a state prison bus to take them to the Wake County jail.
Board member Keith Sutton at one point was in the midst of the fray, apparently trying to prevent excessive or rough handling of demonstrators. Sutton said a police officer briefly grabbed his arm and pulled it behind him during the confusion surrounding the arrests.
"I was trying to defuse the situation and make sure people weren't treated too
roughly," Sutton said. "One of the officers grabbed me and held my arm
behind my back before he realized who I was."
By about 5:15 p.m., Margiotta had approached the remaining members of the public and got an
agreement to let 10 more speak without interruption.
Duane Cutlip,
a candidate for state house in Wake County, said the demonstration was
unfortunate because it wasn't a productive way of solving problems and
because it involved adults taking advantage of young people.
"We
have to come together as adults and discuss the differences rather than
falling into theater," Cutlip said.
Yevonne Brannon, a former Wake
County commissioner and a leader of the Great Schools in Wake
Coalition, said the demonstrations and arrests saddened her.
"We
should not be in the position that we have to have students, parents,
grandparents and community leaders arrested to make sure our schools are
not resegregated," Brannon said.
Earlier, Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP, and Rev. Nancy Petty, senior pastor at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, were arrested by Raleigh police as they stepped onto the property of the Wake school board administration building, defying a school district letter barring them from the grounds.
Shortly after leading a downtown march and rally protesting the Wake school board majority's decision to ditch the district's long-standing diversity policy, Barber arrived at school administration headquarters on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. Stepping out of an SUV around 2:45 p.m., Barber was met at the building entrance by Harold Lassiter, head of security for the school district, and several Raleigh police officers. With Petty by his side, Barber read aloud an open letter to school board chairman Ron Margiotta.
Lassiter asked whether Barber, who along with Petty, Duke University professor Tim Tyson and activist Mary D. Williams were arrested for disrupting a June 15 school board meeting, had prepared written assurances he wouldn't disrupt the afternoon school board meeting taking place inside the building as required by a school board letter banning the four from the property.
"No," Barber said. Officers then arrested Barber and Petty and led them away in plastic wrist restraints and transported to the Wake County jail.
Barber and Petty were charged with second-degree trespassing, said Jim Sughrue, Raleigh police spokesman. A protester was also arrested. Gregory Moss was charged with resisting, delaying or obstructing a law enforcement officer and was also transported to the Wake County jail.
Their arrest triggered shouting and chants from the more than 100 protesters gathered outside the building, many of them carrying signs equating the board majority's diversity decision with de facto resegregation of Wake schools and neighborhoods. More than 20 Raleigh police officers, some on horseback, were stationed around the crowd, backed up by a mobile command center. Paramedics pedaled on bicycles, on the lookout for protesters overcome by the high heat.
Earlier
Inside the building, the school board started its monthly meeting with Margiotta's pledge not to create schools full of poor or minority children. They faced a packed house of both supporters and opponents.
Chairman Ron Margiotta just gave an opening statement maintaining that that the board would not be distracted by its detractors, presumably including this morning's downtown protesters and the pastors and others arrested minutes ago when trying to attend the meeting, from which they had been barred.
Margiotta heads a coalition determined to end the Wake schools' longstanding emphasis on maintaining balanced schools based on students economic background.
"This board does not intend to create high-poverty or low-performing schools in the new zone assignments.
The board has a full agenda of items, including addressing projected elementary school overcrowding and preparing a job description for a new superintendent.
Earlier today, Wake County school board chair Ron Margiotta proposed generally limiting school board meetings to one per month, instead of the customary two, with one or two work sessions each month.
In addition, Margiotta suggested the elimination of the board's standing committees, saying that having items discussed in committees, at work sessions and at public meetings led to repetition. Some members said the approach would not allow time for adequate consideration of items before they had to be voted on.
"Let's try it and see how it works," Margiotta said, suggesting that the proposal could be tried for three or four months as a test.
Later he added, "The intention was to try to streamline our process."
A resolution calling for the change on a trial basis will be heard at the meeting today.
Items could be introduced through members designated as liaisons in particular areas, or directly to the chair, he said.
Training sessions could be incorporated into some work sessions. State law calls for school boards to meet on the first Tuesday of each month.
Margiotta, who introduced the proposal at a committee of the whole meeting that is in progress, had suggested last month that he would have substantive changes to suggest in the board's meeting structure.
"I don't see how board members could be up to speed on all the items we work on," member Kevin Hill said. "I am beginning to get frustrated with making decisions with 12 minutes to think about it."
Ad hoc committees, like the one formed to search for a new superintendent, would continue to operate, Margiotta said.
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