White Students

A series of racial incidents at South Carroll High put state police on alert last week and have left students and staff members uneasy at the Winfield school.On Friday, about 20 white students came to school waving Confederate flags from their pickup trucks or wearing T-shirts with the flag and the words, "You wear your X, I'll wear mine," referring to Malcolm X and the crossed bars of the flag. About 25 of South Carroll's 1,338 students are black."I think the crisis is over," said Principal David Booz, as he watched over a peaceful lunch period yesterday.

I found Patrick Sheridan's letter about heritage to be quite disconcerting and felt compelled to respond. In making the statement that African Americans by their very existence have a richer heritage than others is a racist statement. Are African Americans comprised of richer heritages than those born in the Middle East or Greece with thousands of years of civilization? Does the author feel that those of Gaelic or Celtic heritages did not suffer at the hands of Romans or Britain under their cruel and oppressive rule?

Last year, students at Taylor County High in Butler, Ga., made history by holding the school's first prom for both whites and blacks, who previously attended separate spring dances in a lingering vestige from the days of segregation. But the good will generated by that first integrated prom, whose theme was "Making it Last Forever," proved short-lived - this year's dance has been split in two again. A group of white students held their own prom last night, while a second gathering, which is expected to draw people of both races, will be held next weekend.

In case no one has noticed it yet, two-thirds of Towson University's past and current student body is and remains white. The current and past regime's mantra of "inclusion" and "diversity" is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to disenfranchise the whites. This includes the recent Title 9 female over male baseball mess that the current TU president botched. TU is fine with all new ideas, just as long as they are theirs. During 1970-72 as an elected Student Government Association senator, I stood behind the effort to form a Black Student Union.

Americans think we live in a meritocracy where hard work can take you from rags to riches. Access to a great education can be an escape from the cyclical poverty found in Baltimore and other major cites. Attending an elite university is particularly helpful. Studies show that graduates of elite institutions - and Ivy League schools in particular - are more successful than graduates from other institutions. Admission into the Ivy League and other top schools is also considered to be meritocratic.

BUTLER, Ga. - They arrived with their own and left the same way. But for several hours that glowed as brightly as the girls' sequined dresses and promised to last beyond the return of the boys' rented tuxes, they were simply together. For a school where every previous prom was actually two - one for the white students and one for the blacks - the mere act of gathering in a single ballroom on Friday night set Taylor County High School's dance apart from the thousands of such dances held across the country during this time of year - not to mention its history.

Students at a Baltimore County high school drew a racially offensive picture on a classroom board last week and then sent it out on Twitter, prompting the principal to call police and suspend several students. The picture, drawn during class at Eastern Technical High School, shows three nooses hanging from the rafters of a building, according to Baltimore County police spokesman Cathy Batton. Beside the ropes are a burning cross with three stick figures in pointed hats, suggesting the Ku Klux Klan.

By the start of classes in August 2011, white students in Howard County are expected to be a minority, joining those in Baltimore County. The two school systems are riding a demographic wave that carries broad implications for how students are taught. Baltimore County two years ago joined Baltimore City and Montgomery, Prince George's, Charles and Somerset counties as Maryland jurisdictions where minorities outnumber white students in public schools, although the development was little noticed at the time.

Towson University and the University of Maryland Baltimore County are national leaders in graduating black and Hispanic students at similar rates to their white peers, according to studies released this week by the Education Trust. Towson was one of 11 institutions hailed by the Education Trust, a nonprofit group that works to lower the achievement gaps for minority students, for maintaining low graduation gaps for both black and Hispanic students. At Towson, 69.6 percent of Hispanic students graduated within six years for the classes that finished college between 2006 and 2008 compared with 66.7 percent of white students.

A QUIET BUT noteworthy trend is occurring at historically black colleges and universities around the country: More white students are enrolling. This is a welcome, if ironic, development at institutions founded when racism denied higher education to blacks. White enrollment at these institutions, known as HBCUs, grew 65 percent during the last 25 years, from 21,000 to 35,000. Nationwide, white enrollment at publicly funded HBCUs is at 13 percent. The increase in enrollment by whites and, to a lesser extent, by Hispanic and Asian-American students is the result of outreach by the schools, more affordable tuitions and shifting attitudes and perceptions by whites who once viewed the schools as unwelcoming and of lesser quality.

Towson University is trying to reassure its student population and address the concerns of national civil rights groups after a pro-white race student group recently announced it would conduct crime-watching patrols at night. Matthew Heimbach, a Towson senior and founder of the White Student Union, made headlines across the country earlier this week for the patrols, which he said were in response to a spike in black-on-white crime. Heimbach said the patrol members would be unarmed except for flashlights and pepper spray, though he had previously told Towson's student newspaper his members have gotten firearms training.

Barely a week after the group made national news for advocating for racial segregation at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Towson University's White Student Union is again drawing attention for plans to conduct nighttime patrols to watch for crime. Matthew Heimbach, a 21-year-old senior and founder of the group, said his group plans to go out a few nights a week - the men armed with only Maglite flashlights, the women with pepper spray - and will attempt to make a citizen's arrest if they witness a "violent felony.

Americans think we live in a meritocracy where hard work can take you from rags to riches. Access to a great education can be an escape from the cyclical poverty found in Baltimore and other major cites. Attending an elite university is particularly helpful. Studies show that graduates of elite institutions - and Ivy League schools in particular - are more successful than graduates from other institutions. Admission into the Ivy League and other top schools is also considered to be meritocratic.

Although dozens are vying for Dallas Dance's attention in his first days as Baltimore County school superintendent, he plans to seek out disengaged students and parents of private school students, two groups that he hopes respectively to keep and to attract back into the fold. On Monday, Dance takes on the job of leading the 105,000-student system, which has grown far more racially diverse and economically stratified in the past decade. The 31-year-old Virginia native seems intent on asking those who are unhappy with the system what he must change to support students on the verge of dropping out and to challenge students whose families have the means to go elsewhere.

Students at a Baltimore County high school drew a racially offensive picture on a classroom board last week and then sent it out on Twitter, prompting the principal to call police and suspend several students. The picture, drawn during class at Eastern Technical High School, shows three nooses hanging from the rafters of a building, according to Baltimore County police spokesman Cathy Batton. Beside the ropes are a burning cross with three stick figures in pointed hats, suggesting the Ku Klux Klan.

For the fourth year in a row, Maryland ranked No. 1 in the nation in the percentage of its graduating seniors who successfully passed the rigorous Advanced Placement exams, leaping further ahead of other top states. Twenty-nine percent of last year's graduating seniors in Maryland had passed one AP test by the time they walked across the stage last spring, double the percentage of a decade ago and more than one percentage point higher than 2010. The national average was 18 percent.

For the fourth year in a row, Maryland ranked No. 1 in the nation in the percentage of its graduating seniors who successfully passed the rigorous Advanced Placement exams, leaping further ahead of other top states. Twenty-nine percent of last year's graduating seniors in Maryland had passed one AP test by the time they walked across the stage last spring, double the percentage of a decade ago and more than one percentage point higher than 2010. The national average was 18 percent.

Imagine, for a moment, that Asian teachers dominated the school system in which you live. Imagine they taught white and Asian students, and that the white students were told at every opportunity that Asians scored higher on intelligence and standardized tests.Imagine these white students picked up the morning paper and spotted a headline that read "White Students Continue To Lag Behind Asians." Imagine the Asian teachers had no expectations that the whites could perform academically, that white students were routinely shunted off to special education classes while Asians dominated the gifted and talented programs.

Towson University and the University of Maryland Baltimore County are national leaders in graduating black and Hispanic students at similar rates to their white peers, according to studies released this week by the Education Trust. Towson was one of 11 institutions hailed by the Education Trust, a nonprofit group that works to lower the achievement gaps for minority students, for maintaining low graduation gaps for both black and Hispanic students. At Towson, 69.6 percent of Hispanic students graduated within six years for the classes that finished college between 2006 and 2008 compared with 66.7 percent of white students.

By the start of classes in August 2011, white students in Howard County are expected to be a minority, joining those in Baltimore County. The two school systems are riding a demographic wave that carries broad implications for how students are taught. Baltimore County two years ago joined Baltimore City and Montgomery, Prince George's, Charles and Somerset counties as Maryland jurisdictions where minorities outnumber white students in public schools, although the development was little noticed at the time.