Hoover School Officials, Lawyers Seek Feedback on Discrimination for Ongoing Case
The Hoover school system wants to end federal oversight over its school district. The court supervision stems from a decades-old settlement in Jefferson County’s school desegregation case.
Tonight, Hoover school officials and lawyers representing black students in the system want to get community feedback on plans that would show policies and practices are not discriminatory. Officials would examine several things in Hoover, including programs, facilities, attendance zones, and hiring practices. Hoover is under court supervision because at the time of the 1965 lawsuit, students in the Hoover area were part of the Jefferson County school system.
The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Trace Crossings Elementary School.
U.W. Clemon, the lawyer representing black students and their parents, says the Hoover system still has a long way to go, especially after a controversial video recently surfaced online in which high school students in Hoover used racist and anti-Semitic slurs.
“Some attitudes have to change on the part of a lot of people before we get into the mindset of a unitary system – one in which there are no traces of racial discrimination,” Clemon says.
Hoover has increased the percentage of black teachers in the system in recent years, Clemon says. But while about a quarter of Hoover students are black, less than a tenth of teachers are black, according to federal records.
Clemon says the low percentage of black faculty, along with the school system’s lukewarm response to the video, is a problem.
“The administration, as far as many of the parents are concerned, has not been as forthright as it should have been in denouncing racists acts,” Clemon says.
The federal judge supervising the desegregation case will consider the feedback and decide what’s next.
Photo by Sporksrock120
SpaceX launches 11th test flight of its mega Starship rocket with another win
Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, thundered into the evening sky from the southern tip of Texas.
Madagascar’s president flees country in fear for his life after military rebellion
Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina called for dialogue "to find a way out of this situation" and said the constitution should be respected.
In Marc Maron’s last ‘WTF’ podcast episode, Obama offers advice on closing chapters
In the final episode, Marc Maron and former President Barack Obama spoke about the legacy of the podcast, politics and moving on.
Ecuador: The Andean reinvention of cumbia
Photographers and storytellers Karla Gachet and Ivan Kashinsky document cumbia music in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina and the United States.
Tackles, projectiles and gunfire: Many fear ICE tactics are growing more violent
Videos taken by eye witnesses of federal agent encounters with immigrants in Chicago and elsewhere have shown increasingly tense incidents. Immigrant advocates and observers say they're indicative of a larger trend of aggression among federal immigration officers.
As the ceasefire begins, a look at the Gaza war by the numbers
With start of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and release of hostages and prisoners, here are some key figures related to the Gaza war and the Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked it.
