Restart Button Missing at Wake County Schools Regular Meeting

After 19 people were arrested yesterday at the Wake County Schools regular meeting, a few former and current public school students remained locked arm-in-arm singing. The students were there to support the school system’s old diversity policy, yet on (38:00 minutes) and off camera, they seemed to be way more concerned about their theatrical performances than listening to the facts when they were presented to them – Glee has become such a wonderful resource.

Bill Randall, a Republican candidate on the ballot for US Congress, tried to tell the audience what the graduation rate for minority students (3:38 minutes) has been under the current diversity policy. Most people in the audience responded by booing.

For someone outside the community going to a Wake County Schools meeting for the first time sitting in the crowd may have been confusing, prompting them to wonder why people who were calling the new school board majority racists were making remarks like, “They’re all white,” “Go home Yankee,” and “We in the South” – thanks for the geography lesson.

Most speakers chastised the board for developing a new policy geared toward neighborhood schools. Chairman Ron Margiotta told the audience the new policy would focus on quality education through different opportunities. He said the board was trying to get rid of the “inefficiencies of the past” and “instability” to increase “trust and collaboration.” The goal he said was “student achievement.”

Despite his efforts, what unraveled was an all-out chanting and yelling match between officials and those who opposed the new student assignment policy. The same people participating in the yelling match – who were often heard saying hallelujah and amen – were pleading with board members to keep the old policy so the “school-to-prison pipeline” would disappear.

Is there any irony in the FACT that 19 out of 100 attendees were arrested? And, several of the people who claim to desperately cling to their faith were speaking so negatively and without faith? Shortly after police made the arrests, Margiotta tried to defuse the emotion in the room and offer remaining speakers a chance to have their two minutes to speak before the board. At that time, elected Margiotta, appointed to chairman, was asked to relinquish his duties for shuffling his papers and flipping through his notebook during meetings.

That’s something amazing. I guess if you shuffle papers, or look through a notebook during meetings, you must be one, disagreeing with the speaker and two, a racist.

“Meeting after meeting after meeting, we continue to watch you shuffle papers and flip through your notebook when people speak (who) you disagree with. You create this hostile atmosphere…you need to relinquish your duties as chair.”

While she may think her attempts are noble, she does not have the authority to tell Margiotta that he is relieved of his duties. The voters spoke in 2007, meaning his time serving the community as chairman is not finished.