Although 18-year-old student Courtney Thomas has been charged with ethnic intimidation after admitting to writing racist graffiti at Seaholm High School, the leadership of the local branch of the NAACP doesn’t believe he acted alone.
According to Superintendent David Larson, the NAACP is offering a $1,000 reward for tips concerning five other incidents of racism at the school, all of which have occurred in the past few weeks.
News of the reward came after Thomas was arraigned at the 48th District Court Wednesday, where he pleaded not guilty to one count of ethnic intimidation for writing a racially charged note on the wall of the boys bathroom April 20.
Several other incidents followed in the weeks after the first, including more graffiti and racist notes discovered in an African-American teacher’s mailbox and the lockers of several African-American students.
While Thomas admitted to the first incident, Birmingham’s community relations director Marcia Wilkinson said the school is still investigating the five other cases, even opening a tip line so students and parents can provide information anonymously.
According to Thomas’s lawyer, Wendy Barnwell, Thomas has been bullied during his past four years at Seaholm. At his arraignment Wednesday, Barnwell also noted a previous incident that occurred in December 2010, during which a white student targeted African Americans and was suspended, but not expelled or criminally charged.
“It’s disproportionate,” she said. “(Thomas is) not a bully. He’s been bullied. He’s a victim.” If indicted, Thomas could be facing up to two years in prison or a $5,000 fine.
According to Wilkinson, no criminal charges were filed in the December case because, while deplorable, the stunt did not involve a specific threat.
“It was definitely offensive,” she said. “But it was not a threat to the students.”
During that incident, a student used Photoshop to create a racially offensive flier. Wilkinson said the student was suspended for 10 days — the maximum schools are allowed under law — but she couldn’t confirm his or her race nor confirm whether Thomas was targeted.
At the Tuesday meeting of the Birmingham Board of Education, Superintendent Larson said the district had been working hand-in-hand with the NAACP, the African American Family Network and the Anti-Defamation League.
Moving forward, Larson also said Tuesday that district administrators will begin discussing whether to install temporary cameras in high school hallways. Currently, there are only cameras at building entrances and in the parking lots.
The cameras would be placed in several “key hallways” and used as a deterrent to crime, Larson said.
Larson said administrators would bring the issue of cameras back to the board during one of its June meetings, but until then, they want to approach the subject deliberately, consider the privacy issues, and not be reactionary.
“We have a few more weeks and we want to gauge the opinion of students and staff,” he said.
If the school board agrees to the camera, Larson said, they could be installed as early as September.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Saturday, May 21st 2011 at 3:43PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
