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Some
blacks shudder to think what would have happened if
the teachers were black men and the students were white
girls.
"I
can assure you if it were an African American male who
committed such an offense against a white female, history
shows us that the charges, the punishment and the sentencing
would be totally different," said state NAACP president
Lonnie Randolph. "The system ain't blind when the
perpetrator is an African American male or female or
when the victim is a white female."
Jerry
Peace, the county prosecutor and a white man, said that
the teachers are wearing electronic tracking devices
and that their release on bail -- $125,000 for one,
$110,000 for the other -- was based not on race, but
on the danger to the community and the likelihood that
the defendants might flee.
In
any case, it would be unusual for someone accused of
such a crime to be held without bail. Deborah Ahrens,
a visiting professor of criminal law at the University
of South Carolina, said of the bail amounts for the
two teachers: "For the clients that I've represented
in the past that were up for similar offenses, that
sounds about right."
Signs
of racial tension, old and new, are not hard to find
in Laurens County. The school where one of the teachers
worked used to be blacks-only. In the town of Laurens,
where one of the teachers taught, an old movie theater
has been converted into a Ku Klux Klan museum and paraphernalia
store called The Redneck Shop. There, visitors can buy
Confederate flags and bumper stickers, such as one that
depicts three Klansmen and reads "The Original
Boys in the Hood."
Textile
mills were once the chief source of jobs in the working-class
area about 60 miles northwest of the state capital of
Columbia, but the industry went into decline in the
1990s. The main employers now include a maker of plastic
coolers and Presbyterian College in Clinton. As of 2003,
nearly 15 percent of county residents lived below the
poverty line.
And
as in many communities, most neighborhoods in the county
are either black or white. People of different races
find themselves side by side in one of two places: work
or school.
Wendie
Schweikert, a 37-year-old married woman who had been
teaching elementary school in Laurens for more than
a decade, was arrested last year after the mother of
an 11-year-old boy accused her of having sex with the
boy at school at least twice. Authorities said they
found evidence bearing his DNA in her classroom. She
is also accused of having sex with him in her car near
a miniature golf course and arcade in Greenville, about
40 miles away.
Allenna
Ward, a 24-year-old minister's daughter in her second
year of teaching, was fired Feb. 28 after she was charged
with having sex with at least five boys. Some of the
alleged victims, 14 and 15 years old, were students
at the middle school in Clinton where Ward taught. Police
say Ward, who is married, had sex with the boys at the
school, at a motel, in a park and behind a restaurant.
Attempts
to contact the women in person and by telephone were
unsuccessful, and their lawyers did not return repeated
calls.
Black
and white residents alike said they are shocked by the
accusations. Many echoed the sentiments of Peggy Hawkins,
a 50-year-old white resident. "Boys are boys and
she done wrong," Hawkins said of one of the teachers.
The
Rev. David Kennedy, a local black activist, is among
those who see racism at work. He said the white teachers
accused of preying on black students figured "they
can do what they want to do with them and they know
the consequences won't be great."
He
suggested that blacks in town are too afraid to speak
out: "There's a long history of intimidation and
it's a sin. It's unholy in Laurens County to speak out."
Parents
whose children go to E.B Morse Elementary School, where
Schweikert taught, say they have trouble reconciling
the accusations with the woman they knew.
"She
was very involved," said Shea Mills, whose son
attended the school. "I remember she would make
kids pick paper up in the halls."
Bell
Street Middle School Principal Maureen Tiller said Ward
did well during an evaluation of her skills, and "personality-wise
she seemed to be fine."
Nicole
Sullivan, whose daughter went to Schweikert's school,
said that when the case broke, students brought home
notes saying the teacher had resigned. The notes did
not explain why.
"I
don't want to say it was a racial thing, but if it were
a white victim and a black teacher, I think things would
have been handled differently," said Sullivan,
who is black.
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