MORE MINORITY ROLE MODELS SEEN AS SCHOOLS IMPROVEMENT

If there were more minority role models in the Cape Girardeau public school system, there would be fewer problems with minority students, Everlean Brown said.

Her view was shared by most of the parents and other concerned citizens that turned out for a meeting Thursday night sponsored by the NAACP.

The NAACP was host to an input session for citizens, parents and students who wanted to contribute specific examples of negative treatment by the school system.

An NAACP complaint was filed in February with the U.S. Department of Education's office of civil rights in Kansas City outlining "problems" with the school system. Thursday's meeting was to add more examples of negative treatment towards minorities and other students at Cape Central High School and the junior high.

"We're not doing this just for minorities," Debra Willis said. "We're doing this for all of the students and parents involved. We've been negotiating with the school board for three years, and we feel like nothing has been done. We feel like there are problems with some of their disciplinary policies."

Sheley Moore said parents and others felt tied up when dealing with the school board. Concerned parents and citizens want access to the schools to help ease the disciplinary problems.

Dawn Evans, the local NAACP president, said about 20 people attended the meeting and 17 additional, specific examples of negative treatment towards parents and students by the school system were collected. Those examples will be turned over today to the committee that filed the complaint with the Department of Education.

"It will go into the hands of Juanita Spicer," Evans said. "She will forward it to the Department of Education because she's in charge of the committee."

Evans said Spicer and her committee would consider the additional examples and add some of them to the complaint.

Spicer was unable to attend the meeting.

The meeting originally was scheduled for 7:30 p.m., but that time was changed Thursday afternoon to 6:30 p.m. because of another community function.

A reporter from the Southeast Missourian missed the event because the newspaper wasn't notified of the time change.

Specific reports filed with the NAACP Thursday night weren't obtained. The reports were collected to be notarized and forwarded to the committee.