San Diego
San Diego city schools trustees Tuesday let stand a teacher’s decision to exclude 9th-grade student Erica Rowe from a team of Gompers Secondary School students that will represent California on Saturday in the National Science Olympiad in East Lansing, Mich.
At the recommendation of Supt. Thomas Payzant, the board took no action on a claim by Mary Rowe, Erica’s mother, that her daughter had been excluded from the competition because teacher Martin Teachworth was racially biased against the black youngster and was conducting a “personal vendetta” against her. Erica will make the trip to the contest as an alternate.
Payzant also recommended that the district adopt selection procedures for future competitions of this kind.
Junior (7th- through 9th-grade) and senior (10th- through 12th-grade) teams from Gompers last month won the right to represent the state in competition with 38 other states by beating teams from across Southern California. They will compete in 24 events including anatomy, computer programming and meteorology.
One other black student made the team.
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