Desegregation Aftereffects Anger Parents

"In my opinion, I think there should be academic-based admissions . . . particularly if the population is predominately one group," she said. "Tradition doesn't have to continue if it's not working."

Edythe Flemings-Hall, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, said parents are demanding too much too quickly. When Judge Peter J. Messitte ended the court case, he ordered that the school system comply with requests from the local chapter of the NAACP to restructure the magnet program if necessary by the end of the year. A group of experts is scheduled to analyze the program by the end of the summer.

"I understand that parents are anxious about getting kids into the most convenient and best schools," Flemings-Hall said. "But how do we justify making adjustments for one set of parents and not others? If we do it for the Paint Branch parents, we'll have to do it for everyone."

Martin Luther King Jr. students scored 49.7 on last year's Maryland School Performance Assessment Program exams, the highest among the county's 26 middle schools. And Nicholas Orem students scored 21 points lower.

In March, school officials sent the 17 white, Hispanic and Asian American sixth-graders in Paint Branch's science, math and technology magnet program a form with a list of middle school options. If they wanted to continue in the magnet program, they would have to go to Nicholas Orem. Otherwise they would be sent to their neighborhood school -- Greenbelt Middle School, where students scored 14 points lower than their peers at Martin Luther King Jr. on state standardized tests.

The 34 black students were given the additional option of Martin Luther King Jr. because they were needed to diversify the school, school officials said.

Lawrence Borders Jr. was one of them. His mother is Hispanic and his father is black, so the school system considers him black. Borders will attend Martin Luther King Jr. in the fall. But his best friend and neighbor, Curtis Williams, was told he could not enroll in the school. The two friends were distraught, their mothers said.

"Race has never been an issue up until they got those forms saying they cannot go to the same school because of their race," said Leticia Borders, Lawrence's mother. "Now, for the first time they're looking at each other based on what color their skin is."

Joanne Williams eventually got her son into the school through a special foreign language program, but she said she will continue to fight the school system's decision.

"We teach them that race doesn't matter," Joanne Williams said. "It's kind of ironic that an important authority figure like a school system says you're different because of your race."

Meanwhile, Sharon Krosel is considering enrolling her son in a private school, home schooling him or moving to a house in the Martin Luther King Jr. attendance zone. "We can't wait until they revamp the whole magnet system," she said.