MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A southern Minnesota school district is expected to vote Monday on a $1.1 million state grant meant to help curb drug use among students of color after a pair of board members delayed accepting the money by arguing it could discriminate against white students.
At least 5 members of the 7-person Faribault school board say they will vote in favor of accepting the funding when it comes to a vote Monday evening. In November, 4 of the board’s members had been deadlocked in a vote after 2 members argued that programs specifically for students of color were unfair to white students.
“Would we ever go after a grant that only targeted whites with hopes that it would trickle down to our BIPOC community? Would we do the opposite? And I don’t think we would,” Board Member LeeAnn Lechtenberg said at the meeting.
She, along with Board Member Richard Olson voted against the program.
The district serves Faribault, a city of 24,000 people. About 73% of the city is white, but it also has significant Latino & Black populations, including a Somali American community. More than 60% of the school district’s students are people of color.
A mother from the Somali community approached the school board last summer with concerns about drug use among youth in her community & the district applied for a $1.1 million grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services to curb drug use among Black, Indigenous & other students of color.
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NORMAN, Okla. (Associated Press) — The University of Oklahoma's president expelled two students Tuesday after he said they were identified as leaders of a racist chant captured on video during a fraternity event.
University President David Boren said in a statement the two students were dismissed for creating a "hostile learning environment for others." Their names were not released.
The video posted online shows several people on a bus participating in a chant that included a racial slur, referenced lynching and indicated black students would never be admitted to OU's chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
Boren acted swiftly after the video surfaced late Sunday, severing ties with the fraternity and ordering its house shuttered Monday and announcing the expulsions Tuesday.
"I hope that students involved in this incident will learn from this experience and realize that it is wrong to use words to hurt, threaten, and exclude other people," he said.
Boren said the university is working to identify other students involved in the chant, who may also face discipline.
Windows at the fraternity were boarded up and moving vans were parked outside Tuesday. Members have until midnight to remove their belongings. The Greek letters have already been removed from the side of the sprawling, sand-colored brick house on a street lined with fraternity and sorority houses just west of the center of campus.
Markeshia Lyon, a junior from Oklahoma City and one of about 1,400 black students who attend the university's Norman campus, said the mostly segregated Greek culture at OU is partly to blame for creating an environment where racism can thrive.
"That's something that's passed down, and that's something that needs to change," Lyon said.
She also said the video has sparked intense interest in addressing racial tensions on campus.
The university, located in the southern Oklahoma City suburb of Norman, has about 27,000 students, about 5 percent of whom are black.
On Monday, a top high school football recruit withdrew his commitment to attend the university after seeing the video.
North Mesquite High School football star Jean Delance, a top offensive lineman prospect, told KTVT television and KRLD-AM in Dallas-Fort Worth that he spoke Sunday night with coach Bob Stoops, but wasn't told about the incident.
"I'm very disappointed in the coaches not letting me know," Delance told KRLD. "But that was just heart-breaking right there."
The Oklahoma football team decided to protest rather than practice Monday. At the team's indoor practice facility, coach Bob Stoops led the way as players, joined by athletic director Joe Castiglione, walked arm-in-arm, wearing black.
Boren attended a pre-dawn rally organized by students Monday morning and lambasted the fraternity members involved as "disgraceful" and called their behavior "reprehensible."
"This is not who we are," Boren said at a midday news conference. "I'd be glad if they left. I might even pay the bus fare for them."
National leaders of Sigma Alpha Epsilon said an investigation confirmed members took part in the chant and announced they would close the local chapter. The national group said it was "embarrassed" by the "unacceptable and racist" behavior.
The fraternity also said in a statement late Monday that the chant was not a part of fraternity tradition.
Boren said members of the fraternity were "not totally forthcoming." It's unclear who recorded the video, when it was recorded and who initially posted it online. Boren suggested it was likely taken by another student who didn't agree with what was being chanted.
OU Unheard, a black student group on campus, posted a link to the video after someone anonymously called it to the group's attention Sunday afternoon, communications director Alexis Hall said Monday.
"We immediately needed to share that with the OU student body," said Hall, a junior. "For students to say they're going to lynch an entire group of people. ... It's disgusting."
The video appears to have been taken on a charter bus, with at least one of the chanting young men wearing a tuxedo.
Telephone and email messages left Monday with several members of the fraternity seeking comment on the video were not returned. Other members declined to comment.
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Associated Press writer Allen Reed contributed to this report from Little Rock, Arkansas.
A Georgia history teacher is in hot water after allowing several students to wear KKK robes to school for a play.
Catherine Ariemma, who teaches at Lumpkin County High School was suspended by the school after several African American students and one parent complained.
It's understandable that students would be upset. They were eating lunch when the students wearing KKK robes strolled through the cafeteria. None of the students at lunch had any idea the outfits were for a school play.
Ariemma says she made the mistake of letting her students walk through the cafeteria because she wasn't thinking. Her class has first period lunch. Another teacher confronted her afterwards.
"That's when I heard there were a couple of students who were upset," Ariemma said.
School Superintendent Dewey Maye told the Associated Press. "This stuff happened in history, Do you ignore it? No. But you certainly don't walk the hallway in the garb."
Student Cody Rider told WSB-TV he was ready to take care of the situation himself if need be.
"I was sitting in the lunchroom and my little cousin taps me on the shoulder -- he's also African-American -- and he was scared," he said. "There was fear in his eyes. I was like, 'What is it? I looked up and they just walked through the lunchroom in white sheets. So, I mean me, I got mad and stood up and I tried to go handle it."
Ariemma, who has taught at the school for six years, feels like she made a poor decision, but would accept her fate if she is fired.
"I am a good teacher, I speak the truth, I tell the truth. I suppose if some decides it's the end, it's the end."
It probably is the end and with good reason in my opinion.