The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 7

Palm Beach Post. Friday, February 1971-A7 St. Lucie Schools Closed A fter Strife THIS WEEK ONLY Jl CLEANED have a 2 8 grade-point average," she said. "The average black person just doesn't have those grades." Other students said they were angered by signs printed on school walls saying, "Niggers Go Home," or "Die, Nigger Die." One student charged the election for homecoming queen had been rigged to prevent the election of a black queen. After the two and one-half hour meeting at St.

Simons, Father Barry said the students had several valid complaints. He indicated he had arranged further meetings with the PUPPY COATS 1 PRICE 72 SALE REG. any living room and hall (Regardless of Room Size) ANY LIVING ROOM DINING ROOM (or dining area) DOCKTORS PET CENTER IS GIVING AWAY, FREE, ON FEBRUARY 1 5, A TOY FOX TERRIER PUPPY! FURNITURE CLEANING ANY SOFA OR CHAIR M8.95 SOFA 2 CHAIRS IK AC and HALL CLEANED SO195 Continued from Page Al The fights came in the wake of two cross-burnings and complaints by blacks their grievances are going unmet. School Principal John Perdue said last night he met with blacks three times yesterday, and each time they failed to spell out their grievances. "They were quite vocal, but I still don't know what their main complaints are," Perdue told the emergency meeting packed by about 130 spectators.

Perdue said the trouble started yesterday morning when a group of blacks refused to go to class until they had aired complaints with administrators. The students were called into the gymna-torium and asked to choose 15 spokesmen for the group. But the students were unable to agree on either leaders or issues, the principal said. Perdue said the spark came when a black yelled, "A brother's being attacked in the shop building." Fist fights erupted moments later between black and white students. Other fights were reported involving only black students.

ADOut 30 police and sheriff's deputies were summoned to the campus at 9: 30 a.m. Believing the trouble had gotten out of control. Perdue said he asked for and received permission to close the school. Anxious parents and sightseers clogged roads leading to the high school from about 9 a.m. until almost noon.

At a noon meeting with Perdue, blacks charged they were being punished for things white students can do with impunity. White students said the reverse is true. One black complained the school, opened this year, is too far from the black community. Others called for a more lenient dress code. The current code bans long hair and Afro hair styles.

"And so far as the cross-burning goes," one girl said, "the people who did that could have been white, black, purple or pink with green polka dots. "Nobody said they were white," she said. "It could have been anybody who wanted to see racial trouble at Fort Pierce Cen tral and there are plenty of people in Fort Pierce who would like to see that." Crosses were burned in front of the high school and in front of a black's residence early Sunday, according to a Sheriff's Department spokesman. While the students were making their charges, faculty members began making counter-charges of lack of interest on the part of students, lack of effort to establish communications and too much generalizing when charges were made. "I've been called a nigger-lover by some white students," one white teacher heatedly declared, "and a lot worse by some of my black students, and I never said a word.

"But I'm tired of white teachers being called nigger-lovers and rednecks and I'm tired of hearing black teachers called Uncle Toms and worse." "This thing couldn't have started today," Supt. J. Walter Hebb said at the noon meeting, "and it couldn't have started yesterday. "It's a growing, cancerous thing and the schools have been charged with a job that hasn't been done by parents, churches and other members of the community. "But that's not getting to the point.

We've got work to do and we need some help." Following the meeting, four school board members, Hebb, school administrators and six members of the biracial committee met with about 50 disgruntled black students in St. Simons Episcopal Church at the invitation of the Rev. Richard Barry, the church's pastor. Father Barry told the students to put their complaints in writing. He assured them their written statements would be read by school officials.

A black student said, "If we don't get action, I suggest we walk back out." At that point, Father Barry noticed a reporter and photographer from The Post were attending the meeting. He ordered them out of the room and off the church property. "We have a very explosive situation here and we want the press to leave," he said. Several dozen black students milled around outside the church. Vickie Flagg, a senior at Fort Pierce Central, condemned the school's club policy as unfair to blacks.

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