The Buffalo Public School District's latest plan to deal with discrimination in city schools is discouraging, according to Samuel Radford, the head of the District Parent Coordinating Council.
Radford says the district's proposal to address civil rights issues ignores a consultant's recommendations and continues on with preferential treatment to neighbors for admission to Olmsted 64, an elementary school often seen as a path into City Honors.
Radford contends the district's slow pace is aimed at controlling admissions for another year.
"We just want fairness," says Radford. "We just want the Civil Rights of all of our students and our parents to be respected. So, however that has to get done, we're willing to work with whoever is willing to do that. What we're not willing to do, is be part of a delay tactic so we can go through another year of maintaining the status quo."
Radford says parents went to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights after the district failed to address the issues. He notes its now dragging into its fourth year and is calling on the Office of Civil Rights to appoint a federal judge to resolve the matter.
