silver v. halifax
TRANSCRIPT
FACT SHEET
Silver et al. v. Halifax County Board of Commissioners
CONTACT
U.N.C. Center for Civil Rights: Mark Dorosin 919-445-0174; [email protected] Coalition for Education and Economic Security in Halifax (CEES): Rebecca Copeland 252-813-5952; [email protected] NAACP, Halifax County Branch: David Harvey 252-314-7446 Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: Stacie B. Royster 202-662-8317; [email protected] Latham & Watkins LLP: Jessica Allen 212-906-2983; [email protected]
All statements below are allegations provided by the plaintiffs. None of these allegations have been proven yet.
ABOUT Silver v. Halifax County Board of Commissioners
Three parents and grandparents in Halifax County, on behalf of themselves and their children or grandchildren, and two community organizations filed a complaint against the Halifax County Board of Commissioners (the “Board”) alleging that the Board is failing to meet its obligation to provide the opportunity to receive a sound basic education to all children in Halifax County. The Board is constitutionally obligated to structure a system of public education that meets the qualitative standards established by the North Carolina Supreme Court in Leandro v. State and Hoke County v. State. The complaint alleges that the Board maintains an inefficient three-district system that is a relic of the Jim Crow era, divides the children of Halifax County into the “good” district and the “bad” districts along racial lines, and fails to meet the fundamental educational mandates recognized by the North Carolina Supreme Court and established by the North Carolina Constitution. By maintaining an educational delivery system that is inadequately and inefficiently resourced and racially fragmented, the Board has created an insurmountable impediment to all Halifax County students’ ability to secure the opportunity to receive a sound basic education.
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FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Citations below are to paragraphs in the Complaint.
• The North Carolina Constitution guarantees all children in the state an opportunity to receive a sound basic education from a free public school. (¶ 9) The structure that the Board has chosen to maintain – three racially-disparate and inadequately-resourced school districts – fails to deliver that opportunity to every student in Halifax County. (¶ 11)
• A constitutionally adequate education system provides a student with at least (1) sufficient ability to read, write, and speak the English language and sufficient knowledge of fundamental mathematics and physical science to enable the student to function in a complex and rapidly changing society; (2) sufficient fundamental knowledge of geography, history, and basic economic and political systems to enable the student to make informed choices regarding issues that affect the student personally or that affect the student’s community, state, and nation; and (3) sufficient academic and vocational skills to enable the student to successfully engage in post-secondary education or vocational training and to compete on an equal basis with others in further formal education or in gaining employment in contemporary society. (¶ 12)
• Whether a system provides students with a sound basic education is measured by, among other things, the educational outputs of the students within that system, which include but are not limited to achievement on standardized tests (e.g., end-of-grade (“EOG”) exams and end-of-course (“EOC”) exams), dropout and graduation rates, and the attainment of post-secondary educational or employment opportunities. (¶ 20)
• In Halifax County, three separate school districts serve fewer than seven thousand students (¶¶ 27-29), forcing the districts to compete for limited educational resources and causing the County to incur duplicative costs. (¶¶ 125-137)
• The three school districts within Halifax County are Halifax County Public Schools (“HCPS”), Weldon City Schools (“WCS”) and Roanoke Rapids Graded School District (“RRGSD”). (Complaint Introduction and ¶¶ 27-29)
• The population of Halifax County is 40.3% white and 53.9% black or multiracial (as of 2013), yet the three districts are racially identifiable as either “white” or “black” districts. (¶¶ 205, 27-29)
• As of 2015, HCPS’s student population is 85% black and 4% white; WCS’s student population is 94% black and 4% white, and RRGSD’s student population is 26% black and 65% white. (¶¶ 27-29)
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• HCPS currently ranks 115th out of 115 total school districts in North Carolina on statewide composite End of Grade (EOG) and End of Course (EOC) exams. For composite grade 3-8 EOG/EOCs, WCS ranks 114th, and RRGSD ranks 70th. (¶ 30)
• Test scores of students in HCPS and WCS, the “black districts,” are consistently lower than those of students in RRGSD, the “white district,” though the students in RRGSD often have test scores below the state average. (¶¶ 33-42) For example, since 2008, no more than 47.7% of students at WCS and 31.7% of students at HCPS have scored at or above grade level (“Level III Proficiency”) on standardized statewide composite (Grade 3-8) EOG/EOC exams in any given year. (¶ 33) RRGSD had 61.4% of students scoring at or above grade level during the 2012-2013 school year, but that fell below the statewide average for 2012-2013 of 67.5%. (¶ 34)
• Students in the black districts experience higher rates of suspension than in the white district, and therefore have less access to learning time. ( ¶¶ 43-50)
• The dropout rate in Halifax County, particularly among black students, is higher than elsewhere in North Carolina. (¶¶ 51-54)
• The quality of educational resources—including facilities, teachers, learning materials, and curricular and extra-curricular resources—provided to students in Halifax County, and especially students in HCPS and WCS, falls well below constitutional standards. (¶¶ 56-124)
• Students at Northwest High School in HCPS have endured sewage in the hallways, crumbling ceilings and exposure to mold, and failing heating and air systems. (¶¶ 59-61) By contrast, the students at RRGSD’s high school attend a school that has been repeatedly renovated since its initial construction, is on the National Register of Historic Places, has a building dedicated solely to physical education and music and a pristine athletic field. (¶¶ 64-68)
• HCPS and WCS are unable to attract and retain a sufficient number of experienced, highly effective, or qualified teachers and principals, (¶¶ 75, 82-106) and their teachers lack access to appropriate instruction materials at a higher rate than RRGSD teachers. (¶¶ 75-81)
• Students at HCPS and WCS are frequently forced to share old and worn down text books, workbooks and other classroom materials. (¶ 108-111)
• Opportunities to enroll in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses are minimal, if available at all, in the two black school districts. (¶ 113)
• HCPS and WCS schools do not offer the same opportunities for students with respect to the quality or variety of music, art, physical education, and theater programs as those available to students who attend RRGSD schools. (¶¶ 123-124)
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• An outside consultant presented a proposal to the Board in 2011 that characterized consolidation of the three districts as a “no-brainer.” (¶ 132)
• The Board’s sales tax distribution provides additional funding to RRGSC and WCS, but not HCPS. (¶¶ 139-161)
• The nature of the educational deficiencies in Halifax County, as well as past attempts at improvement, demonstrate that merely adding resources to the defective three district system cannot remedy the constitutional infirmities of that system, as shown by the limited improvement made by ongoing implementation of a “turnaround” plan. (¶¶ 162-174)
• The three-district education system perpetuates racial stigma that is traceable to the County’s history of racial segregation. (¶¶ 175-199)
• The Board has reinforced and exacerbated the historical racial divide by continuously maintaining and funding three districts despite changes in city limits and a declining student population. (¶¶ 200-209)
• The Board’s local funding decisions, including the appropriation of the local sales tax revenue, fails to adequately or fairly resource the three districts. (¶ 214)
• The tripartite school district system flows from and perpetuates a policy of racial separation that signals the inferiority of the black districts and undermines the opportunity of black students to obtain a sound basic education. (¶¶ 210-221)
• Halifax County residents, including children and their teachers, understand that the black school districts are considered inferior to the “better” white district. (¶¶ 210-221)
• Social science research has long demonstrated that children who are stigmatized by attending a supposedly inferior school system internalize that stigma, lose motivation, perform more poorly in their academic pursuits than their non-stigmatized peers, and struggle to reach their academic potential. (¶ 222-223)
ABOUT THE PLAINTIFFS
The plaintiffs in Silver v. Halifax County Board of Commissioners include:
LaTonya Silver • Ms. Silver is a single mother of three children who attend HCPS. Her children, Brianna,
Larry, and Dominick, will enter grades six, four, and one, respectively, this fall. Brianna is an avid reader, enjoys cheerleading and basketball, and wants to be a doctor. Larry loves technology, playing football, and wants to be a police officer or firefighter. Dominick enjoys storytelling writing and running and hopes to become a journalist. (¶ 1)
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• Although Brianna hopes to play basketball later in her education, including in high school, she never attended a school with a basketball court until two basketball hoops were installed during her last few months at Pittman Elementary in HCPS. Belmont Elementary and Chaloner Middle School in RRGSD, however, have basketball courts. (¶ 124)
• Larry has asked his mother why he has to attend the “worse” school and why he cannot go to the school with plenty of textbooks and new buildings. (¶ 218)
Brenda Sledge • Ms. Sledge is the grandmother and guardian of Alicia Jones, who will attend high school
this fall at Northwest High School in HCPS. Alicia enjoys drawing and painting, reading, and working with children. She has volunteered to work with elementary and middle school students during her study hall and hopes to be a pediatrician or phlebotomist when she grows up. (¶ 2)
• Although Alicia is interested in a career in science, she has not been provided the opportunity to participate in science experiments at any school she has attended in HCPS or WCS. (¶ 115)
Felicia Scott • Ms. Scott is the mother of Jamier Scott, who will begin the eighth grade at Weldon
Middle School in WCS this fall. Jamier likes being outside, playing with his family’s dog, and riding his bike. He enjoys life sciences and is well known among his family, friends, and teachers for his knowledge of dogs and dog breeds. (¶ 3)
• Ms. Scott has purchased books for a classroom library in WCS, based on an Amazon wish list created by Jamier’s teacher, because the school’s resources are so limited. (¶ 111)
Coalition for Education and Economic Security
• The Coalition for Education and Economic Security is an association of Halifax County residents who work for the improvement of public education (K-12) and the advancement of social justice as prerequisites for a better economy, better jobs and more prosperity in Halifax County. (¶ 4)
Halifax County Branch #5401, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• Halifax County Branch #5401, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is a local affiliate of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, which works to seek justice for all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination. (¶ 5)
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ABOUT THE LEGAL CLAIMS The complaint alleges violations of Article I, § 15 and Article IX, § 2 of the North Carolina Constitution in that the Board has deprived Plaintiffs of their constitutional right to the opportunity to receive a sound basic education as set forth by the North Carolina Supreme Court in Leandro v. State, 346 N.C. 336 (1997) and Hoke County Board of Education v. State, 358 N.C. 605 (2004).
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