In Mississippi: Only White Children Can Run for School President!

AJC.com reports:
When I read a poster’s comment about a school in Mississippi allowing only white kids to be class president in middle school, I had to read more and share it with you. Apparently, the school policy in Nettleton, Miss., began as an effort to rotate class officers among the races. I will give them the benefit of the doubt that this made some sense 30 years ago to ensure that black kids — who are in the minority in the community — held elected office. But it sure doesn’t made sense in 2010. If those reports are correct, I assume that this was the white kids’ year to run the show as students were given a memo earlier this month stating that class presidents in grades 6, 7 and 8 must be white. It also called for the vice presidents in grades 7 and 8 to be white, while the sixth-grade vice president could be black.

I have to wonder why parents haven’t risen up before now to challenge outmoded policy. I am not sure if parents weren’t aware or simply weren’t overly concerned with racial rotations in class officers at the middle school. (I am not sure if students cared, either, as I haven’t found too many kids getting excited over middle school class elections. Running for class office seems to have fallen out of favor with a lot of students.)

The good news is that this policy was changed today (due to the media coverage).
Here is the NBC/MSNBC story, including updates that the school board voted today to change the rules:
The school board in Nettleton, Miss., voted Friday to reverse its policy under which race determined whether a candidate could run for class positions, including president.