Panel says schools need to address educational equality

David Kihara

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 | 9:55 a.m.

Civil rights leaders on Tuesday criticized the Clark County School District for failing to provide adequate educational services for poor and minority students and for treating some minority teachers unfairly.

The civil rights leaders, speaking at a forum in the Clark County Commission Chambers, addressed many issues involving race -- from police racial profiling to inequalities in the workplace to a lack of health care for blacks.

Educational equality, however, was a key issue for several members in attendance.

"You can go to any school in east Las Vegas and the equipment is different," said Fernando Romero, board member of the Clark County Housing Authority and the president of Hispanics in Politics. He said that some poorer schools in Hispanic areas of the county receive poorer quality equipment and services.

He said the district is providing Hispanic students mere certificates of attendance but are not providing the students with educations that prepare them for college and the workforce.

"They can't get a college education, and they aren't getting good jobs," he said.

Dean Ishman, president of the Nevada branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said many parents, students and community leaders are not well informed on how the school system works, which leads to general confusion.

"Education is the key, and we have to educate ourselves on the internal mechanisms of the school district" to order to institute real change, he said.

Lester Lewis, who serves on the NAACP Education Committee, suggested that schools begin teaching more vocational classes for students in addition to the core curriculum so that students who aren't college bound have some practical skills to fall back on after graduation.

"If you're poor and a minority and don't have an education, I don't tell you what you're going to hear" when you try to find a good job, he said.

The panel discussion was attended by many community leaders, from members of the Las Vegas Clark County Urban League, the Islamic Society of Nevada and the Nevada State Advisory Committee, the local arm of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, among others.

With the diversity of members also came a variety of issues discussed. Gary Peck, head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, addressed the hugely disproportionate number of minorities in prisons and jails as well as Metro Police officers allegedly racially profiling minority drivers.

Aslam Abdullah, director of the Islamic Society of Nevada, criticized the authorities for profiling members of the Muslim community after the Sept. 11 attacks, saying that Muslims have become the most discriminated group in America.

He warned, however, that any group could be targeted for discrimination.

"Today it is Muslims; tomorrow it could be someone else," he said.

But Thomas Rodriguez, executive manager of the district's diversity and affirmative action office, said this morning the complaints raised by attendees at Tuesday's forum don't bear out.

The district has 25,000 employees, including more than 3,595 black support staff personnel, teachers and administrators.

In 2004 there were seven cases filed against the district by employees with the federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission alleging civil rights violations and four of those complaints have since been resolved, Rodriguez said. Those complaints included allegations of discrimination based on gender, race and age, Rodriguez said.

In the same year 11 cases were filed with the state's equal rights office by district employees. Five of the cases have already been closed, one was withdrawn and one remained open, Rodriguez said.

"The truth of the matter is it's easy to criticize, but the facts are always going to speak for themselves," Rodriguez said.