‘Ordinary’ Events Triggered Violence: Damage, Both Human and Institutional, Was Considerable

              'Ordinary* Events\	
ZT^HHEViggered Violence]
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Both Human And Institutional, Was Considerable
A missing bicycle, a father f
coming to pick up his daughter i
at school, a few kids 'cutting
class, a police officer a block
away stopping to question a pedestrian—ordinary enough
things in themselves, everyday j
occurrences.
But a few weeks ago, at
Greensboro Grimsley High ;
School, these seemingly inno- i
cuous happenings helped trigger
several days of racial violence,
vandalism and tension—"school'
disruption," as it is euphemistically called.
When calm returned the following week, and the normal
rhythm of the school day was
restored, the-plain clothes policemen roaming the campus
with their walkie-talkies disappeared, as did the prowling patrol-cars. But, as Grimsley
people testify, the damage
remained, and it was considerable, both in human and institutional terms. Hundreds of
students lost classroom time,
either because they were involved in disruptions and ordered to leave the campus or,
frightened by the violence, they
went home on their own and
stayed there.
SEVERAL-WHITE students
had been beaten by gangs of
blacks. A student's father was
injured, though not seriously,
when he was hit in the head
with a rock thrown by an angry
non-student. The school cafeteria had been disrupted by students, who overturned tables
and chairs.
And hundreds of parents
probably lost a little more faith
in the ability of the public
schools to maintain the order
essential to the educational process. Others, shocked by schoolyard rumors and exaggerated
stories brought home by their
children, doubtlessly became
more convinced that school officials and the news media are
suppressing word of what is
really going on in the schools.
The least visible, though most
vocal, casualties, however, may
be the dozen black students
temporarily suspended or expelled from school for the rest
of the year and the others who
dropped out rather than face
disciplinary action. They now
find themselves branded as
troublemakers and outcasts.
Mpst.of all, they now find themselves out on the street, where
they are unlikely to acquire the
work habits and job skills contemplated in school occupational education programs.
RACE RELATIONS at Grimsley were certainly wounded.
School authorities agree on that.
Many black students were already unhappy and frustrated
there, feeling that they are
thoughtlessly shuttled by school
bus. between two worlds each
day to satisfy a white judge's
! whim. A white student on the
other hand, may find it harder
to accept blacks as friends and
equals after seeing his friends
attacked in random beatings or
being beaten himself,
What happened at Grimsley?
Was it a riot? A schoolyard
brawl that got out of hand? Are
the schools under seige, terrorized and intimidated by classroom disruption, washroom
I robbery and hallway extortion?!
j Finding out what happened atl
, Grimsley is not easy, but it is
, not as hard^s figuring out how
it happened and why.
j The teachers, guidance counselors and aclministrators at
j Grimsley, the last of the city's
four senior high schools to experience disruptions during the
past five years, offer many explanations for the trouble — the
isolation felt by many black students at the school, the impulsiveness of a handful of others
whose aggressive behavior may
have little to do with school —
but it all started with two stolen
bicycles.
SCHOOL OFFICIALS give the
following chronology in the
Grimsley disruptions:
A few days before the most
serious disruptions on March" 8,
when about 75'black:students
poured out of class and were
later sent home after meeting
with school officials and becoming unruly, two bicycles-locked
in a rack behind the cafeteria
were stolen. A black student
witnessed the thefts, which he
said were committed by a group
of blacks using bolt cutters taken from the school shop. He lat-
reported them.
School officials sent hL
home for his own protection, I
and the bicycles were ultimately
•J recovered by police. The next
j day, however, racial fighting I
j broke out near the bike racks. |
There was also a black-white
fight a short time later near the
school music building, and a
white student, who claimed to
have been attacked without I
provocation by a group of I
blacks, screamed racial epithets [
at a group of blacks as he was I
being taken to the office by
school officials.
In a subsequent incident, a
white student accused a group
of blacks in the. parking Tot of
slashing and letting the air out
of his automobile tires. His father, who was on campus to pick
up his daughter, got involved in
the argument,with the blacks,
all non-students, school officials
said. The blacks claim that he
pulled a knife and tried to run
them down with his car. He, in
turn, was struck in the head
with a rock. -
THE MOST serious trouble of
the week took place on March
8, a Friday, when.school officials received a report about 10
a.m. that whites and blacks
were fighting on the far corner
! of the campus near Westover
Terrace. When Principal R. L.
Glenn arid Assistant Principal
Spencer Gwynn arrived, they
| found a group of black youths
milling around, including several Grimsley students who were
^supposed to be in class, several
non-students and others who
had been suspended from
school and had no business on
campus.
The students were told to return to class, and the others
asked to leave the campus. One
df them, a 17-year-old black girl
who had been suspended from
school some time earlier, was
stopped a block north of the
campus by a police officer
called to the scene by a passing
motorist who reported a disturbance near the campus.
When the girl became disorderly after the.officer asked for
some identification', she was arrested for disorderly conduct
■ and placed in the police car.
OTHER BLACK students witnessed her arrest, and as word
of it reached the campus, black
students began leaving their
classes and gathering in the
"grove," and open area of pine
trees and azaleas between the
school's cafeteria and music
building. They refused to go to
. class and later met with school
officials, including Glenn and
the superintendent of schools,
and made a number of demands
concerning black students and
their participation in school extracurricular activities.
. During the discussions, which
lasted more than an hour and a
half, two white students were
attacked by a small group of
blacks who broke away from the
larger group in the "grove" and
raced through the cafeteria after hearing a rumor that another black student had been
arrested. The rumor was false.
Finally, afraid that the situa-j
tion was about to get out of con-1
trol, school officials ordered the
black students to go back to J
class, leave the campus or
arrest. School buses were pro-l
vided to take them from the]
campus. ■
OTHER STUDENTS, blackl
and white, who left tl
because they feared for theirj
(See Day Of: A-ll, Col. 2)    '