Mississippi School Reverses Policy That Allowed Only Whites To Be Class President

After media exposure about the Nettleton, Mississippi Middle School allowing only whites to run for school class president, the school board has reversed the practice. The school had sent home a memo last week to parents explaining what race you had to be to run for what office.

The memo indicates that only white students can be president of the school’s eighth grade, while only black students can be vice president.

In seventh grade, whites are the only ones who can be both president and vice president, while the only position a black student at Nettleton can apply for in sixth grade is that of the class reporter.

Superintendent Russell Taylor issued a statement on the school’s website that ethnicity will no longer be a factor.

After being notified of a grievance regarding upcoming student elections at Nettleton Middle School, research was conducted that evidenced that the current practices and procedures for student elections have existed for over 30 years. It is the belief of the current administration that these procedures were implemented to help ensure minority representation and involvement in the student body. It is felt the intent of these election procedures was to ensure African-American representation in each student office category through an annual rotation basis.

…

Therefore, beginning immediately, student elections at Nettleton School District will no longer have a classification of ethnicity. It is our intent that each student has equal opportunity to seek election for any student office. Future student elections will be monitored to help ensure that this change in process and procedure does not adversely affect minority representation in student elections.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.