RALEIGH -- Hundreds sang and marched downtown to fight the possibility of resegregated schools, two high-profile civil rights leaders got arrested again for the cause and police hauled handcuffed protesters out of a chaotic, and disrupted Wake County school board meeting.
But also on Tuesday, board chairman Ron Margiotta responded to the day of protests, arrests and fierce criticism with a pledge aimed at the central complaint of civil rights activists and other opponents. He vowed, without specifics, that the board majority's controversial proposal to assign students closer to their homes would not create schools full of poor or minority children.
Before the afternoon meeting descended into a tangle of chanting protesters collared by determined police, Margiotta also promised in an opening statement that the board would not be distracted by its critics from a return to neighborhood schools.
Margiotta heads a coalition determined to end the Wake schools' longstanding emphasis on maintaining balanced schools based on students' economic background. However, he said, the goal of establishing community school zones need not relegate low-income children to low-end schools.
"This board does not intend to create high-poverty or low-performing schools in the new zone assignments," Margiotta said.
Opposition board member Keith Sutton responded later: "I'm not going to say it's not possible, but it'd be good to have that in writing as part of a plan."
Pastors arrested
Just one floor and a minute's walk away from the board meeting room, the Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP, and the Rev. Nancy Petty, senior pastor at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, were arrested 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, Barber, a Goldsboro pastor, stepped out of an SUV and was met near the building entrance by Harold Lassiter, head of security for the school district.
With Petty by his side, Barber read aloud an open letter to 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 as required by a school board letter.
Barber said they had not. Officers then arrested Barber and Petty and led them away in plastic wrist restraints to the Wake County jail.
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Big agenda, little action
Inside, the board had a full agenda of items, including addressing projected elementary school overcrowding and preparing a job description for a new superintendent. In the end, not much got done. The public comment period, which had been dominated in recent months by opponents of the board, began with remarks by several board supporters, apparently in response to Republican calls to show support for the majority. "Busing and diversity programs do not increase the quality of education for our children," said Bill Randall, a Wake County parent as well as the Republican candidate in North Carolina's 13th Congressional District.
But about halfway through the comment period, speaker Carolyn Coleman, a Guilford County commissioner, began a loud complaint to the board about its policies on diversity, then brought more than two dozen protesters forward to join her in chants of "Forward ever! Backwards never!"
Protesters refused to relinquish the podium, most board members walked out to a nearby room and Margiotta threatened the protesters with arrests. Soon, armed police rounded up those who continued to resist, handcuffing and dragging some out bodily .
Out of 16 protesters arrested inside the meeting room, only three gave Raleigh addresses, according to police records. Another, the Rev. Curtis Gatewood, of Oxford, second vice-president of the state NAACP, suggested that Margiotta was a racist during an earlier school board meeting this year. Like Barber and Petty, they were arrested for second-degree trespassing, a misdemeanor.
Sutton steps into frenzy
Board member Sutton at one point was in the midst of the fray. "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 approached the remaining members of the public and got an agreement to let 10 more speak.
Duane Cutlip, a Republican candidate for state house in Wake County, said the demonstration was unfortunate because it wasn't 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.
The afternoon's arrests of Barber and Petty brought comments pro and con. Said board supporter Jeff Moise, "It's a shame to get arrested on purpose. It sets a bad example for our children."
Speaker Lynn Edmonds granted that it must be hard for the board to deal with complaints, but added: "It is amazing to me that in the United States of America, this body has barred specific members of the public from attending this meeting."
Even amid the theater of demonstrations and civil disobedience, the five-member board majority on the nine-member panel forged ahead with plans that, directly or indirectly, move them closer to their goal of student assignment based on zones.
Earlier Tuesday, 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 and wasted time.
Some members said the approach would not allow time for 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 passed on first reading.
"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."
Staff writer Matt Ehlers contributed to this article.
