The racial mix in Anne Arundel County's school system is again being questioned, this time by a Seven Oaks resident who has called for a federal investigation because he says the redistricting proposal perpetuates "a pattern of ongoing racial segregation."
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice last week, Terrence Henry, 27, questions the school board's proposal to force children in the racially diverse Seven Oaks subdivision to attend Meade area schools, which have a large number of minority students.
"These people are here to protect the children of this county, not subject them to some sort of arbitrary and capricious grouping based solely on race," wrote Mr. Henry, who is black. He is married, but does not have any children.
In the five years since its creation, Seven Oaks, a middle-income neighborhood, has become one of the county's most racially balanced areas, residents say. Therein lies their main concern. They want to keep their children in the Arundel High School feeder system rather than move them and create an unfair racial imbalance.
Mr. Henry said he also asked for the federal investigation because the county Board of Education was not responsive to community concerns raised last fall.
David C. Douglas, a Washington lawyer who lives in Seven Oaks, raised the issue before school Superintendent Carol S. Parham or the school board started to tinker with the countywide redistricting plan. Mr. Douglas is acting as a spokesman for three couples in the subdivision.
Darren Burns, Dr. Parham's staff attorney, said the Seven Oaks residents' allegations that there is racism in the redistricting process are "meritless and groundless."
"While Mr. Douglas has a right to state his position that there is intentional segregation, it is untrue and it's unfair," said Mr. Burns. "There's no segregation going on here. There's no illegal activity."
Bill Church, chairman of the 12-member Countywide Redistricting Committee that submitted the initial redistricting plan, said race was not an issue during the committee's discussion.
"I think it's a nonissue," said Mr. Church. "This is the neighborhood school principle being applied. If you believe in community schools, you have to deal with the housing patterns, and it is the housing patterns that produce the imbalances."
Those housing patterns are the legacy of past segregation in Maryland and Anne Arundel County. Meade area schools have a high number of minority students because in the days of segregation the only high school for black students was located in that area, said Carl O. Snowden, an Annapolis alderman and civil rights activist.
"What we have going is an age-old battle: neighborhood schools busing, although the new euphemism is redistricting," said Mr. Snowden. There's nothing wrong with having a school that has a large minority student population as long as you "ensure they have equal opportunities and resources."
"But we've already proved that separate but equal hasn't worked in this society, and I don't think we've reached the point where it will," he said.
Lewis Bracy, another Anne Arundel civil rights activist, agreed with Mr. Snowden and said "the neighborhood school concept won't work in this area yet."
"People who settle in those areas settled there because of economics, and will be there for a set period," he said. Any attempt at neighborhood schools must be done with care, he said, to make sure schools get adequate funding and "do not become a dumping ground."
Col. Thomas R. Mann, former garrison commander at Fort Meade, used similar words four years ago.
In his letter to then-school Superintendent Larry L. Lorton, he wrote that people were complaining that the area schools "have become 'the dumping ground' for minorities and the poor in Anne Arundel County. The statistics which you gave me support that imbalance assertion."
The statistics showed that 15.6 percent of Meade area students received free school lunches in 1991, and 9 percent received reduced-price lunches, higher numbers than every other feeder system except Annapolis.
Colonel Mann, now a college administrator at Mercer University in Atlanta, was so incensed he threatened to pull the leases for six county schools located on Fort Meade. His threats brought no reaction from the school system.
"They did nothing," Colonel Mann said in a telephone interview last week. "Yes, there is a problem, and I'm glad it has resurfaced. Maybe this time they'll do something."
Colonel Mann argued that children from Seven Oaks should attend Meade area schools because of their proximity to the fort. Instead, they were being bused away from Fort Meade to the Arundel High feeder system, which had a predominantly white student population.
The Seven Oaks residents are arguing a different issue. They want their children to stay in the Arundel system because the children increase the racial balance in the schools.
The perception of an inappropriate racial balance in the Annapolis and Meade feeder systems has persisted since 1973, when a federal court ordered the county to split attendance areas in elementary and middle schools in the Annapolis feeder system, and elementary schools in the Meade feeder system.
The court order, which expired in 1976, said minority populations in those feeder schools should not be more than 20 percent above or below the average minority student population countywide. Now, 19 years later, redistricting has helped resurrect the racial balance issue, even though school officials say there is no deliberate or illegal segregation going on in the school system.
"I know that redistricting is one of the most controversial and emotional issues we face and that parents whose children are directly affected usually become very involved in the process," said Dr. Parham.
"The fact that some people are unhappy with the result does not mean that redistricting is unlawful.
"The changes which have been recommended are not unlawful," Dr. Parham said. "They are designed to provide the best for all students."