ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / September 1, 1999

LUTCHER – An early Monday morning meeting between St. James ParishSchool Superintendent P. Edward Cancienne and protesting parents failedto end the student boycott that has entered a third week.

The meeting, arranged by the president of the St. James Parish chapter ofthe NAACP, Grayling Brown, ended with both sides still at loggerheads.

“We put the meeting together to work out a compromise,” said Brown, “but it didn’t work. We are at a stalemate.”The closed-door meeting, held at the School Board office in Lutcher, lasted just under an hour and was attended by Brown, Cancienne, a dozen parents and Nelson Taylor, the general counsel for the J.K. HaynesFoundation, a civil rights organization that specializes in cases like the situation in St. James Parish. After the meeting, the parents looking grimand angrily refused to comment to the press.

However Taylor, acting as spokesperson for the protestors, said, `”Mitchell must be reinstated before we talk about anything else.”The parents are keeping their children out of school until the St. JamesSchool Board agrees to return Ridgely Mitchell as principal of St. JamesHigh School. Parents, pleased with Mitchell’s performance during his yearat St. James High, were outraged when Cancienne transferred Mitchell lastmonth to the Learning Academy, a new program that will handle children with social and learning disabilities.

“In our view,” said Taylor, “the transfer was a demotion.”Cancienne has always maintained that he transferred Mitchell because he felt Mitchell was the best qualified person for the new post.

“It is the strong consensus of my administrative team and I,” said Cancienne, “that Mr. Mitchell’s transfer to this vital position is in the bestinterest of our entire school system.”After Monday’s meeting, Cancienne was even more steadfast in his decision to transfer Mitchell.

“The decision on Mitchell has been upheld by the board on three separate occasions,” he said.

The School Board, after listening to the parent’s complaints, backed up Cancienne by voting to maintain Mitchell at his present post in the Learning Academy.

Most of the parents blame the School Board for the present problem, saying the elected board members are not listening to the people that voted for them.

J.T. Ambrose, one of the protestors at St. James High, said, “Our fight hasalways been with the School Board. How would they like it if all of asudden there was a black principal at Lutcher High School on the east bank? Would the board go for that? I don’t think so.”Mitchell, who is African-American, was replaced by a white principal.

Though racism is listed as one of the reasons Mitchell was transferred, Taylor insisted Monday that this is not the case.

“Mr. Mitchell is the issue,” Taylor said. “It is not about color. Mr. Mitchellis an effective leader, but the School Board never gave him the opportunity to prove it. We are not going to accept the insensitivity of thesuperintendent.”The boycott, which started Aug. 18, began with almost 1,800 students, orabout a third of the system’s student body, not attending school. As ofMonday that number is down to 700 children who are still not in school.

According to school regulations, if the students do not return to school by today they will receive a mark of NF which means not sufficient. An NFmark means the student will fail his or her courses for the semester.

Today is also the 11th day that children will have been kept from school, and after 10 days Cancienne had the right to take legal action against the parents. Cancienne would not say what action he would take, but did say,”We will send letters out to the parents telling them what is going on, and we may send a letter to the district attorney.”However, Nelson said the education of the boycotting students has not been ignored by the parents, and no laws have been broken.

“A home-bound study program has been set up,” said Taylor. “There is noillegality involved.”According to Doug Myers of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Home-Study Department of BESE sent out over 500 home study applications that were requested by residents of St.

James Parish during the month of August. Of those requests, only 24applications were sent back to BESE. Twelve home-study permits havebeen approved, and another 12 are in the process of being approved.

Cancienne is not convinced this will do the absent students any good. Likethe rest of the state, St. James Parish is under extreme pressure toimprove student scores on the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program and Graduate Exit Exam tests. Cancienne is convinced that teachingstudents at home will not accomplish this goal.

“Home study is not as effective as regular schooling,” he said. “Whenchildren are not in school, it hurts everybody. Our schools are ready toaccept the children.”The other important date in all of this is Oct. 1 when Cancienne has tohand in final enrollment figures to the state. These figures will determinehow much state funding the St. James School System will get for the year. A depleted student body will mean a lot less money for the system’s budget.

But Cancienne is not pessimistic about the consequences.

“This will not cripple the school system,” he said. “We will just have toadjust the budget.”When asked if this would mean layoffs of teachers and staff, Cancienne would only say, “We shall see after Oct. 1.”The lines have been drawn in the sand, and it looks as if both sides are preparing for a long battle.

Ambrose shrugs his shoulders. “We are survivors,” he said. “We will comeback no matter what the School Board does to us.”Another sure sign that this will be a long, drawn-out process is the fact that the parents have placed a portable bathroom on the levee across from the protest site at St. James High School.

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