Cleveland Heights schools segregated, parent charges

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Whene To Find Us 10 SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 1988 By SHIRLEY Baltimore P.O. Box 16005 Baltimore, MD 21218 Boston P.O. Box 1046 GMF Boston, MA 02205 (617) 497-0230 Chicago P.O. Box 267848 Chicago, IL 60626 (312) 327-5752 Cincinnati P.O. Box 21015 Cincinnati, OH 4521 (513) 272-2596 CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio-This suburban community has always prided itself in being racially integrated. National publications have even run ads stating that people who want to live in an integrated community should live in Cleveland Heights.

According to Barbara Madison, president of the Heights Concerned Parents, these claims are untrue. "The school system is not integrated," she said in an interview with Socialist Action.

"By the time they get to high school," Madison pointed out, "the kids are really segregated in different classes. The smart kids are in 'gifted and talented,' the middle group in 'expanded,' and the dumb kids in 'standard."

"I went to a 'standard' class," she continued, "where a guy showed a film the whole period. It wasn't a problem to him that half the class was asleep. But to me there is a problem because that's an allBlack class. If this is an 'integrated' high school, how can you have an all-Black class?

"I can go down the hallway and see an all-white class where the 'smart' kids are. That's not integration. It's segregation in the same building.

"We have a parent in our group whose daughter is the only Black kid in a 'gifted and talented' class. Once, she raised her hand and asked a question. The teacher said, 'If you don't understand what's going on, maybe you'd better go to a lower level.' "This kid is a fighter, though. She managed to fight hard enough to get into this class. She has to fight to stay in there as well. I think we have to train more fighters."

A school "undesirables"

Last year, the system opened another high school, Taylor Academy, in order to "help" the large number of pupils who were failing. Madison charges that the new school is racially segregated. When she expressed her concerns about Taylor Academy to a member of the school board, he conceded, "It probably will be 100 percent Black."

"He's telling me," Madison said, "that so many Black kids are failing in Cleveland Heights High School that they have to open up another school. You can't tell me Cleveland Heights has never had a large number of white kids fail, or Jewish kids fail, or Catholic kids fail. Why, all of a sudden do we have to have a school for Black kids? Especially if that school is based on failure."

Madison submitted a list of questions to the school board concerning the curriculum at Taylor Academy. She pointed out that foreign languages are not included. The school board replied that "these kinds of kids don't need them."

"The state law gives clear definitions for courses of instruction," Madison told Socialist Action. "I don't see how you can deny someone instruction because they Cleveland P.O. Box 6151 Cleveland, OH 44101 (216) 429-2167 Detroit P.O. Box 32546 Detroit, MI 48232 Grand Rapids P.O. Box 3505 Grand Rapids, MI 49501 Los Angeles P.O. Box 60605 Terminal Annex Los Angeles, CA 90060 (213) 250-4608 failed two classes at Heights High."

last chance?"

"Initially, we called Taylor 'the detention center," she continued. "The residents in the area had been quite concerned: 'You're going to open a school for truants in our neighborhood. You mean those little thugs are going to be walking up and down the street?' "The response to that was, 'Oh, no problem. We're going to close all the doors-one door in and one door out-and have a guard!' That's a jail!"

Many parents have been taken in by the school system's arguments that Taylor is the "last chance" for their kids. They were not told that sending their children to Taylor was voluntary.

But protests have been organized, and (continued from page your family. That's the kind of fight working people can wage with real strength and commitment.

Stopping the scabs, of course, does not guarantee success. But it does force the capitalists to pay a political price if they are compelled to bring in the police and National Guard to keep the plants open.

Strike ends without a vote The orientation of the Jay leadership was to listen to the advice of lawyers, politicians, and consultants like Ray Rogers, the architect of the Corporate Campaign. This kept them from organizing direct participation of all the workers, not only the paperworkers themselves but their natural allies throughout the U.S. labor The mill remained open. The Corporate Campaign was getting out lots of information, but victory looked unlikely. With the $55/week strike benefits about to run out, and facing a decertification election Minneapolis P.O. Box 14087 Dinkeytown Station Minneapolis, MN 55414 New York P.O. Box 20209 Ca. Finar 693 Columbus Ave.

New York, N.Y. 10025 San Francisco 3435 Army St., Suite 308 San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 821-0458 Santa Barbara P.O. Box 90644 Santa Barbara, CA 93190 (805) 962-4011 some parents have responded. "Taylor Academy started off slated for 200 kids," Madison said. "When we got through picketing, it was down to less than 150.

"If we can make people understand what's going on in the school system and if we can get enough community support, I think we can close Taylor Academy without having to go to court."

Tracking four-year-olds

It is urgent to change the tracking system, Madison pointed out: "Tracking really hurts minority kids because it's based on standardized tests which have been proven to be socially and culturally biased. So if you give a Black kid a test, he's not going to do as well as a white kid. He's not going into 'gifted and talented' but into those terrible remedial 'standard' classes.' among the scabs in the mill, Local 14 leaders went to Nashville, Tenn., to meet with the UPIU's IP Council, comprised of the other IP locals from around the country.

They proposed that locals at all the other IP mills that are working without contracts strike in support of Local 14. This was rejected. According to Local 14 President William Meserve, "They were afraid of the replacement [strikers being replaced by scabs] issue." On the heels of that rejection, the leadership folded their strike.

Union leaders say they halted the strike to prevent a stampede of Local 14 members back to the mill when the money ran out. But they didn't call a meeting of the strikers before ending the strike; they folded without a vote. Given the steadfastness and militancy of the Jay paperworkers, they would probably have voted to continue.

Rank-and-file members of Local 14 were reportedly stunned and angered by the decision to give up. Losing the strike could cost their jobs and possibly their enter kindergarten. "Little four-year-olds are designated 'gifted and talented," Madison said. "We found out that the pre-school program—which is called Pegasus, the winged white horse-is basically for white kids. But we're paying for all this."

Madison talked to the same school-board member about the Pegasus program. "He said, 'Oh, it's designed specifically for white, upper-class kids.' A school-board member! Again, he had no problem with that."

"I think there is a problem in Cleveland Heights," Madison emphasized. "It's a matter of hypocrisy. Although they say we're integrated, it's not really true. They have special programs to attract whites to the neighborhood. They say, we can give your little white kid a really good education, and you don't have to worry about those 'others."

Heights Concerned Parents is protesting these conditions. "When we picketed on the first day of Taylor," Madison concluded, "it had an impact in making the public aware of what's going on in the school system. We're going to have to plan other protest activities." homes. Its end offers little promise that many strikers will return soon to the mill. The scabs keep their jobs, and IP management says that union members will have preference for jobs only as "normal" openings occur.

If the current job-turnover rate continues, as few as three union members a week will return to their mill jobs.

The Jay strike was but another piece of the growing struggle between employers and workers in this country. The capitalist class is on the offensive, looking for openings to bust the unions, not only in the ailing sections of the economy but—as the Austin and Jay examples point out—in the profitable industries as well.

Local 14 could have won, if they'd mobilized their membership, other workers, and their allies in a massive effort to keep the mill shut down. When strike action becomes necessary to defend living standards, there is no substitute for effective picket lines that keep out the scabs.