Published Online: July 23, 2013

Federal judge considers Pitt County school case

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge this week is hearing the latest round in the decades-old dispute over efforts to desegregate Pitt County schools.

Orders to desegregate the schools were handed down in 1970, although the case was never closed and the issue has been revisited in the past. The question now before Senior U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard is whether a redistricting plan passed two years ago by the schools meets muster with the original desegregation plan.

School attorney Ken Soo told Howard on Monday the system has maintained racial balance for more than 40 years despite population changes and the growth of the county's schools. He added the county schools are more balanced racially than other comparable districts in North Carolina.

He also said that in the years since the desegregation order, the schools have used a busing system so there is no more than 70 percent of any race in any school.

But Mark Dorosin, the attorney for the Pitt County Coalition for Educating Black Children, countered that the most recent districting plan is not equal for black and white students.

He said disparities in the way students of different races are disciplined should also be considered by the judge in determining whether the desegregation order is being followed.

Dorosin argued the county said it did not have a unitary, or equal, system during a 2008 court hearing on a 2005 redistricting plan. And he added evidence will show the most recent redistricting plan did not move the district toward unitary status.

The school system has never had a comprehensive desegregation plan, Dorosin said.

Pitt County Coalition for Educating Black Children are plaintiffs in the suit along with several individuals.

Testimony is expected to continue through the end of the week.

Howard is hearing the case without a jury.


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