BASTROP - Parents on Tuesday protested a Bastrop school board member who they accuse of derailing diversity.
Back in February, the principal of Bastrop Middle School lost her job after she held meetings with students by race. She told African American kids that they needed to improve their test scores. That led the district to form a diversity committee. Now that committee is at the center of a new racial controversy.
Tuesday night , Bastrop resident Steve Miller asked for the resignation of board member John Eaton. Miller says Eaton is the driving force behind reducing the number of African Americans in the district's newly created diversity plan from seven to two.
"The fact that (Easton) was so blatant and brazen to strip all the original African Americans on the committee is racist in tone, it is racist in act," said Miller. "I just cannot believe in this day and time he would even have the nerve or the gall to come up with a plan like that and then an entire school board pass it."
Miller says the 21 member committee should be made up of one-third Caucasians, one-third Hispanics and one-third African Americans. Eaton says that's not how the plan was presented and the original intent was for the committee to reflect the demographics of the district.
"That was like six percent African American, 50 percent Hispanic and 40 percent Caucasian," said Eaton. "That is not 33, 33, 33."
"We need to keep that in mind when we are hiring," said Ty McDonald, the Bastrop Independent School Board president. "It needs to be reflective of the demographics of the district. However, when you are talking about a committee that is going to advise the board about the issues of diversity, you really need diversity on that committee. I am an African American woman but my experience is going to be different than other African Americans. So it will benefit the committee to have more than just two African Americans there."
KVUE News asked Eaton if he was hurt by the fact that some residents were calling for his resignation.
"Not at all," he said. "Honestly. They can call for it all they want. I stand by my views and my beliefs."
McDonald said the board can censure a member, but cannot ask for his resignation. If residents want any board member replaced, they have to do it at the ballot box. In the meantime, any action to change the number of African Americans on the diversity committee will come at the next board meeting at the earliest.
