A nine-year-old third grader won’t be able to attend his St. Louis charter school anymore because he is black….yeah we are saying this in 2016..smh!
Anyways, because of laws passed decades ago that say African American kids that live in the suburbs can’t attend the charter schools in the city, little Edmund Lee’s mother has had to start a petition to make lawmakers realize the flaw in their policy which state that African American students, by law, can’t attend the schools if they move outside of city boundaries but students of other ethnicities can.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released a statement in response to the petition basically saying that their hands are tied because of the law that originally was supposed to desegregate schools. Even though teachers and staff members at the Science Academy in St. Louis have spoken out saying laws should be changed to better suit all students, these lawmakers are still unsure what to do.
Edmund Lee’s mother told Fox 2 that she was in shocked and crying when she read the guidelines. Lee’s 3rd grade teacher said it would be extremely sad to not see his face in the school’s halls next year. She says if the family is saying they want to stay, she doesn’t understand why they can’t.
Source: Fox 2 STL, http://fox2now.com/2016/02/23/student-cant-attend-school-because-hes-african-american/
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