RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) — Three youth and one adult from Pullen Memorial
Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C., were among six people arrested Aug. 10
for disrupting a meeting of the Wake County School Board in protest of
the school district's new diversity policy.
During the public-comments portion of the meeting three women and three teenagers linked arms and refused to leave the podium. Police escorted the protesters from the room and placed them under arrest.
Carolyn Veronica Billings, 71; Graham Marshall Buckner, 18; Seth Byron Keel, 16; Doris Hill Justice, 73; Samuel Cole Matthews, 16 and Gayle Santi Matthews, 47, were charged with second-degree trespassing.
Billings and the three teenagers are all members of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, a formerly Southern Baptist church that has been involved in recent demonstrations organized by the NAACP to protest a decision by a new conservative majority on the board to scrap Raleigh's lauded busing policy and focus instead on neighborhood schools.
Nancy Petty, the senior pastor at Pullen Memorial, has been arrested twice. The first time was for refusing to give up the podium at a board meeting June 15. The second came when she and NAACP head William Barber ignored a letter banning them from attending and were arrested while trying to enter the meeting July 20.
Opponents to the new policy say it will lead to re-segregation of public schools.
In prepared comments that he read to the board, Keel, a member of Pullen's fellowship and youth committees, said he was proud to be a student in a school system recognized across the country as a model for diversity within education.
"Sadly, this is about to change because of five close-minded board members," said Keel, who attends Middle Creek High School in Apex, N.C.
"A neighborhood school system will segregate schools based on socio-economic status and create unequal opportunities for learning," Keel said. "It will also prohibit current and future students from benefiting from the diversity that was so important and relevant in my education."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
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Baptist pastor arrested in protest