3/15/07  Reflections on Black Heritage Month as it pertained to segregated Black & Hispanic Students at Preston Hollow Elementary School

A good, smart friend brought something to my attention, so I decided to be fair and balanced and ask the following question:

In his article, The state of Black Dallas Independent School District (Dallas Examiner), DISD Trustee Dr. Lew Blackburn talked about the importance of answering the call to action for Black children as many within the Dallas ISD reflected on Black African American Heritage Month last month. 

Conflict? What Conflict?, a recent Dallas Observer article, is about the segregation of Black and Hispanic students at Preston Hollow Elementary School that took place over a year ago.  There has been a federal court ruling in favor of two very courageous women who decided to seek assistance from the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) after a local/national LULAC representative determined the ladies did not have a complaint that would merit his organization's assistance.  Turns out this local/national LULAC representative was so unhappy with the Dallas Observer article, he emailed Dallas Observer staff to voice his displeasure and also told Dallas Observer staff their  newspaper could be found in out-houses? Guess this guy still has one. lol

But, seriously, did Dr. Blackburn and/or any within Dallas' Black leadership community answer the call to action when black children of Preston Hollow Elementary School were segregated?  Why did the NAACP not want to get involved when being notified about the segregation occurring as far back as a year ago this February?  And not only did LULAC miss the call to action in support of those segregated children, so did the remainder of the DISD School Board and the Preston Hollow Elementary School PTA.

Much to my delight, the only DISD school board trustee that I know of who has publicly said anything about the segregation of Black and Hispanic students at Preston Hollow Elementary School has been Dr. Carla Ranger. Kudos to her, I hope she gets the answers to the questions on this issue she asked at a recent DISD school board meeting.

Hopefully, both LULAC and the NAACP can review the X's and O's on the tragic situation at Preston Hollow Elementary School and find a way to answer any and all future calls to action to assist students in need of assistance from their respective organizations without placing their fellow members at risk who are employed within the DISD.

I can't understand why DISD has allowed the whistleblower who reported the segregation of students at Preston Hollow Elementary School to remain unemployed from her former position of community liaison while simply reassigning the former principal who was held accountable in a FEDERAL COURT for the segregation.   The DISD seems to be is working as slow as possible to replace the community liaison position at Preston Hollow Elementary School.

Where is the justice here? What kind of leadership within the DISD does that represent?

Gehrig Saldana