Aug 1

Written by: host
8/1/2010 2:03 PM

By Patricia Morris

The local NAACP stands for seeing the better qualified person hired as well, regardless of race, but there is a nearly 50-year-old court order the school system initially lied about in saying it did not exist, but was proven that it did exist and the federal court agreed it had not been complied with. Hence, we are in court now to correct the inequities found in the TPSS not having complied with a 1979 court order.

Our stance on race was proven when we adopted a resolution in support of seeing former Hammond High School's principal Carmon Moore, who is white, returned to his job as principal, because the TPSS wronged him in violating his due process rights, and have yet to tell Moore why he was let go. This is wrong, and we do not support any wrongdoing, regardless to who commits the wrong.

The NAACP, a 101-year-old organization, is a champion for equal rights for all people.

The problem the TPSS is facing now is that of six school board members and the TPSS's superintendent refusing to wait five days to give the court-ordered compliance officer an opportuinty to review the complaints she received in their hiring of a new principal who is white, as opposed to that of a black applicant, based in part on the recommendation of their deseg attorney last week. The problem we have is the compliance officer did not have all of the board members in the room when she told them she wanted to review the process, and we feel strongly that since all of the board members was in the building, all should have been in attendance, or she could have simply asked to address the entire board before she left the building before the meeting began and the vote was taken to hire the principal the superintendent recommended.

It is the opinion of the local NAACP Branch that Mr. Moore should be reinstated for the next year, thus causing this school system to correct the same mannerisms used in usurping court orders to continue the practice of doing what they want to do, despite what a court order says they are to do, and one they have agreed to do.

By Patricia Morris

Ms. Faison,
The Joyce Marie Deseg Case dates back to 1965, and was won in 1979. The TPSS chose not to comply with the orders of a Federal Judge, and continued its segregationist ways of doing wrong things in this school system. Friday, a former school board member admitted to a school board candidate that he thought both judges in this decades old case is wrong, and his recommendation would be to challenge the judge now overseeing this case, because the first Judge Alvin Rubin is deceased. The things this man shared is unreal, in that most of what he said is yet happening, and he boasts that many of the ideas implemented that were wrong continue to be so today, with many of the things being his ideas from that time in the past todate. It is certain some wrong ideas will die with some people, however, we move on to a better way of living and doing things for all.

Court orders are meant to be complied with, and until they are, the federal court order remains in place. I do not know if you remember when this case was reopened, and before it was, I personally, along with several other NAACP members went before the school board for nearly three years asking that we sit down to discuss where they were not in compliance with the court order to avoid returning to court. They refused and continued to mislead the public into thinking that there was no court order; I was lying, and that unitary status had been granted. The former superintendent, several board members and their attorneys continued to lie to the public in an attempt of making a mockery out what I was saying. Well, the truth has and continues to surface. There are serious problems in the TPSS.

During the time that Attorney Nelson Taylor spent two weeks in New Orleans putting together a Composite Court Order from the room full of documents he had sent from the Court's Archives in Dallas, TX, the first motion he said he picked up from boxes of motions filed was one that had been filed by Attorney Chris Moody which said in part, "the TPSS is now ready to be granted unitary status, because we now have a black superintendent - Louis Joseph." This was a misrepresentation of the truth as well. because this school system was no place near being in a position to ask for unitary status, and that includes the compliance officer signing documents that said the numbers that the school system was reporting to the court to reach their 60/40 goal was at 36%, when in fact we decided to check the numbers ourselves, and found them to be at that time 12.7% as opposed to 36% of black employees in this school system. We did, however, question the complaince officer, and she admitted she signed the documents because they were "done by school employees and they were neat," but promised to check what she signed in the future. While it is not known why a federal judge had not ruled on this, or even looked at this motion is not known. Maybe it was Karma, or whatever your belief is, but it did not happen.

Had the superintendent and the board chosen to sit down to talk and reach an agreement, much of the money spent would not have been spent on attorneys from both sides, and two compliance officers now in place, one of which is the idea of the TPSS's administration. The other compliance officer was appointed by the late Judge Alvin Rubin, because he felt oversight was needed as the TPSS continually refused to comply with his orders, and on one occasion all 19-board members were summoned to appear before Judge Rubin and had to pay plaintiff's attorney $100 each, or face jail time on the day of their appearing before Rubin's bench.

The deseg plan that is submitted in court now is not the final deseg plan, as changes will be made, and it becoming a reality rests upon a massive building plan tax that must be passed next year by the citizens of Tangipahoa Parish. This plan is simply one that the TPSS was reordered to do, because one had not been submitted when the case was won in 1979, and the late Judge Alvin Rubin ordered that the TPSS tell the court and the planitiffs how they would implement a plan to remove the vesitiges of a segregated school system following forced integregation in 1969. This history of segregation and desegregation in Tangipahoa Parish is long. Making race an issue is the workings and brainchild of some who refuse to see change take place, yet, these same people blame others in a cowardly manner citing race as an issue to cover their true feelings.

Accordingly, thank you for your interest, because there are 44 Deseg Cases in Louisiana alone that have not been reopened, and all await the outcome of this one in Tangipahoa Parish, as well as other cases across the United States.

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