School Survey Says: Answers Next Year

Parent Outraged, Arrested

Scott Rogers, an outspoken Damascus parent who is well known on parent Internet lists, has been banned from his son's elementary school for a year following an incident that he describes as a protest arrest this month.

Rogers was at Potomac Elementary School on March 6 for a conference with teachers and administrators. His son attends the school's Chinese immersion program.

In e-mail correspondence, Rogers said he wanted the school to assign fifth-grade work to his third-grade son, who is gifted. Rogers says his son's teacher is assigning fourth-grade work, with occasional forays into fifth-grade material; Rogers considers this insufficient.

School system officials often disagree with parents on whether a gifted child is properly challenged, but such disputes seldom end in arrest.

Rogers wrote that "after years of the usual run-around, I figured either I was going to successfully argue my case (with their documents) or I was just not going to leave (unless in handcuffs.) Unfortunately, the meeting did not go well."

According to Principal Linda Goldberg, Rogers raised his voice, pointed his finger at staff "in a threatening manner" and pursued them loudly into the main office, leading school officials to put the campus on Code Blue, an emergency procedure.

When Rogers refused to leave, police were summoned. According to an arrest document, the 6-foot-4 Rogers "stood up, cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed very loudly, 'I am Rosa Parks. I will not ride on the back of the bus.' "

Rogers, a stay-at-home father, said he spent 3 1/2 hours in jail. He faces misdemeanor charges of disturbing school operations and trespassing, each punishable by up to six months in jail and/or a fine. Rogers was banned from school under a section of state code that allows school officials to deny access to someone who has disrupted normal educational functions.

He said he invoked the name of Rosa Parks to draw a parallel between the civil rights struggle and his battle against "lowered expectations" at the school for his son, who he contends is "undertaught."