Children as hostages

This wasn't supposed to happen here

[Reprinted from Issues & Views March 25, 2002]

Some years ago, economist and syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell facetiously wrote that the persistent drive to "balance" the racial composition in public schools might lead to situations where white children are held hostage, to insure the results government bureaucrats wish to achieve. Well, there's no humor in this report from the Associated Press (3/15/02), but one is inspired to ask, What country are we living in? This excerpt from "Locking the Kids In" shows where forced integration has led:

As part of a desegregation effort in Huntington Beach, Calif., white students attending schools with minority enrollment of 64 percent or higher are forbidden from transferring out while minority students are no longer allowed to transfer in.

"It locks the exit doors for whites. It locks the entrance doors for minorities. It's just a repugnant situation and it's not something a free society should condone," said parent Bruce Crawford, whose kids graduated from one of six area high schools affected by the policy.

School board member Matthew Harper opposes the racial balancing policy, which he says is only being applied to white students and has been enforced to an extreme, even preventing one boy from transferring to another school so he could help care for his disabled sister.

"It actually goes both ways but it's only been enforced in one direction. The only students who have been denied a transfer are white students of non-Hispanic origin," Harper said.

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