Re: high school redistricting
Posted by:
Thomas More
()
Date: November 01, 2007 09:51PM
And now for a little bedtime reading, the saga of Linda Jones continues:
2) At the end of Linda’s second to last season as head coach, as the season was coming to an end, a black parent of a black junior player turned to one of his white friends who was also the parent of another player and asked, in kindness and sincerity “Do think Linda’s a racist?” The white parent hemmed and hawed and finally said “ya I think she has a problem. She clearly has given preferential treatment to the Jones girls. I can’t imagine her putting up with that act from a white parent and girls for three years.” The inquiring black parent subsequently moved his family so his younger daughter could play for Westfield instead of SL.
A few games before, as SL had a 30 point lead on a team at the start of the 4th quarter, [yes, there was a time when SL girls had thirty point leads on teams in the Concorde District at the end of the third quarter] Linda cleared the beach. One by one the juniors were put into the game until only two guards were left on the bench: a white junior and the only sophomore, a black girl. At the next time out, the black sophomore was sent into the game. As the game wound down and the white junior was the only one left in her warm ups, the moms of the other players asked the white junior’s parents if she was hurt. “No, she’s fine.”, her mom answered. The question went around the parents “What’s wrong with [the junior]?” Finally, a black father’s voice was heard from the back “wrong color.” As the parents heads turned to see the Dad of the starting senior center, he was shaking his head, “I’m really sorry Linda’s like that but what are you gonna’ do.”
Whether this bias is conscientious or not, I cannot say, but the kids caught on faster than the parents. Over the last 6 years of her tenure, 3 blond blue eyed centers quit on Linda. All three would have started at any other high school in FFX. The last one went on to play college ball after sitting out her high school senior year.
But the Jones family fiasco tops it all. In 1996 Virginia Jones entered SL as a freshman joining her older sister, Candy. Both were short black girls with an assessment of their own ability that exceeded everyone else’s except their father’s. Virginia was immediately placed on the varsity ahead of several sophomores and juniors. Though more slender, Linda Jones had also been a short guard at SL. She was not related to these girls.
When the Jones girl’s were not given all of the playing time during an early season non district game that first year, Dad stormed into the girls locker room and chewed out Linda, loud enough for it to be heard in the corridor outside. This type of behavior continued for three years.
The Jones girls passed the ball principally to each other even when other girls on the team were open. These teammates of the Jones sisters included five girls who played or were offered scholarships to D-I programs. They didn’t need the Jones sisters to carry them. They needed the Jones girls to get them the ball.
The Jones girls had one particular competitor for playing time. X was a team player and a superior guard, certainly superior to either of the Jones sisters. Those two sisters made this poor kid’s life a nightmare with trash talk and physical abuse. She was white and during high school she lost her father under very tragic circumstances. The Jones girls never let up on the abuse and Linda did nothing to stop it.
Finally, in the third year of this horror show, Mr. Jones went too far. He went to court and accused Linda of assaulting one of his daughters. The charges were bogus. The parents of the other players unamimously stood up for Linda despite their suspicions about her racism. Usually charges against a teacher are heard in juvenile court behind closed doors. Judge Roush took the unusual step of holding the trial in open court. After rebuking the Jones strenuously for bringing false charges, she exonerated Linda.
The next day all of the parents, black and white, said to each other “Do you think this would have gone on for three years if the Jones girls had been tall blond centers instead of short black guards?”
The girls lost every game the next year and, eight years later, girls basketball at SL has yet to recover to the levels of achievement it attained before Linda decided to give Virginia and Candy preferential treatment.
I think Bruce was at SL during the Jones sisters fiasco. He was certainly there the next year when he sat on the screening committee to pick Linda’s successor as head basketball coach and many of the issues of Linda’s tenure came up during those meetings.
Maybe he just forgot all this history seven years later when he promoted Linda to DSA. Maybe he hoped we had forgotten but the players and parents who experienced those three seasons from hell will never forget.