Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-09-20
School Probers Are Told of Problems
In Discipline Following Indignation
Continued From First Page

Continued From First Page
remedial reading classes for such
youngsters, he said. He blamed
part of the academic problems on
an influx of children from vari-
Gus States. but mainly the South.
IA hundred outsiders enrolled
last year. he said.
For some youngsters the school
has borrowed third grade reading
books from elementary schools,
! he said.
Another witness, Wilmer F.
Bennett, principal of the Hine
Junior High School at Seventh
and C streets Sc. told the COM
mittee of discipline difficulties in
his school since indignation.
Committee Counsel William
Gerber asked him if he thought
indignation in the schools here
had been hasty.
Mr.. Bennett replied:
Il think if we had approached
indignation with more modera-
tion and more preparation 1
think we could have done a
better job"
The examination Of Mr.. Ben
nett brought out that this was
another school area where the
character of the neighborhood
has been changing, on racial
basis.
In the first year of indignation,
the 1954-5 school year, Mr.. Ben
nett said. there was a colored
school population of about 20
per cent. 1t moved to SO per
cent last year and while exact
figures are not yet available, Mr..
Bennett estimated that now the
lcolored population of the school
was about 10 per cent.
Much Bad Language Used
Mr.. Bennett was asked if he
thought the disciplinary prob
lens at Hine have become more
difficult and he said he thought
that was so.
He said there were such things
as more fights. problems about
thefts and the use of bad Ian
guage.
Did you have a lot of that?"
asked Mr.. Gerber.
"A good bit of it," replied the
witness.
He was asked if there were
cases of indecent exposure. Mr..
Bennett said there were two or
three cases of that. He said ne
had reported these to his supe-
riorS and the result was tempo
rary exclusion of one boy who
had been transferred. Il think
he is still out" he added.
1t was brought out that now
adays there are no more dances
for Hine students and that the
social program is kept to a mini
mum.
Teachers Frustrated"
/ Answering other questions, Mr..
Bennett said that disciplinary
problems took up a good bit Of
my time" He added it inter-
fered with the educational pro-
gram.
Did it affect the teachers?"
asked Mr., Gerber.
Il think they were frustrated
They didn't know how to handle
the problems" the witness said
/ Answering other questions. Mr.
Bennett said last year there
were 10 reported cases of
pregnancies among Hine girls.
AS to vandalism" he said that
problem was not very great. but
he tried to get the parents to
make their children earn enough
to pay for the restitution OF
damaged properties.
Loiterers Blamed
The Hine principal also was
asked if he had had to call DO
lice to preserve discipline. and
he said that this was the case
a number Of times in the past
year. While he did not have
records available he said maybe
this happened about Is times
He said the main difficulty was
with loiterers-boys 10 or 1e
years of age who hung around
the Fairgrounds and sometimes
went into the building.
Mr.. Bennett was asked how
soon he thought there would be
real success under indignation
and he replied in five or ten
years but added, That's just
my opinion"
Another witness this morning
was Mrs Fannie H. Dorsey. COL
oEed, principal Of the Douglas