Principal in Prom Bias Case Removed

A high school principal who briefly chose to cancel his school’s prom rather than allow interracial dating was removed from his post Monday, two days after the school was destroyed in a fire authorities suspect may have been deliberately set.

Saying it was time for the racially troubled county to heal its wounds, the Randolph County School Board voted unanimously to reassign Hulond Humphries.

After the vote, school board president Danny McCord’s voice cracked as he read a statement asking the community to “help us build from the ashes of Randolph County High School.”

“It’s a tragic place to start,” he said. “I beg your help.”

Humphries, 55, who is white, will take an administrative post for the county school system. His chief duty will be to oversee the rebuilding of the school. The board named a white teacher to replace him, and a black teacher from another school was named assistant principal.

Henry A. Sterling, Alabama field representative for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, hailed the decision, saying the community now can begin to heal. “The next few days are critical,” he said. “There are some tempers that will have to cool off.” Sterling had been among African American leaders who had called for Humphries to be fired.

Humphries, who had been the school’s principal for 25 years, was reportedly out of town Monday and could not be reached for comment.

The county, which has 20,000 people, has been divided along racial lines on whether the principal should be removed.

Denise Smith, 34, a white convenience store clerk, sympathized with Humphries.

“It’s just so sad. He dedicated his whole life to that school,” she said. “So many people just lie about what kind of person he is. He didn’t mean to say what he said.”

Theresa Lee, 17, who will be a senior in the fall, said she was considering transferring out of the school district because of Humphries. “He doesn’t deserve to be anything to the school,” she said.

Tensions have been high here since February, when Humphries asked for a show of hands at a student assembly from those who planned to attend the prom with a date of a different race. When a number of students raised their hands, he announced that the prom would be canceled.

When ReVonda Bowen, a junior of mixed parentage, stood up and asked who she could bring to the prom, Humphries reportedly said her parents had made a “mistake” in bearing her.

He backed off from his threat to cancel the prom the next day, but African Americans who have alleged for years that the principal discriminated against blacks in discipline and hiring continued to demand his resignation.

Tensions flared to new heights after the school was gutted early Saturday, only hours before the scheduled start of a Southern Christian Leadership Conference march calling for Humphries’ ouster, and a rumored counterdemonstration by the Ku Klux Klan.

A black television cameraman was roughed up while filming Humphries at the school as fire fighters battled the blaze.

Humphries reportedly rushed the camera saying “Why don’t you just get out of here?” A hand covered the lens as an unidentified voice said, “You black sons of bitches burned this school.”

The cameraman was treated for neck and shoulder injuries. His camera was destroyed.

The SCLC march was postponed, and the KKK kept a low profile. Arson investigators initially said the fire appeared to have been set, but state Fire Marshal John Robison said arson was just one of a number of possible causes being examined. Federal agents also were investigating.

“We are not going to guess at the cause of this fire,” Robison said.

School officials briefly suspended Humphries in March while they investigated the prom incident and agreed to pay $25,000 toward Bowen’s college education. But in May, the U.S. Justice Department filed a complaint alleging racial discrimination in the school district and asked that Humphries be replaced. Lawyers for both sides had been trying to settle the case.

A hearing on the department’s motion had been set for Thursday in federal court in Montgomery. There was no immediate word on whether Monday’s vote would affect the hearing, although Sterling predicted the Justice Department would drop its lawsuit if it is determined that the board’s actions satisfies the black community’s complaints.

While Sterling said complaints of hiring discrimination, promotions and curriculum go beyond the presence of Humphries as principal, he added: “A lot of the problems will leave when he leaves.”

He said he was gratified that the black teacher was promoted to assistant principal in Monday’s reorganization. The 680-student high school is about 38% black. It was integrated some 25 years ago.

Explaining the vote, Donald Sweeny, the school board’s attorney, said, “The feeling of the superintendent and the board was that it was in the best interest of the community to begin the healing process.”

There had been arguments during the board’s emotional closed-door session, but in the end the seven-member board agreed unanimously to remove the principal. “This wasn’t legal strategizing,” Sweeny said of the board’s move. “The board was trying to find some way to reach out to all aspects of the community for the reconstruction of the school and the reconstruction of the community.”

Previously the only board member in favor of removing Humphries had been the single African American member. Another board member who had argued against Humphries’ reinstatement earlier resigned in protest.

Several of Humphries’ supporters said Monday night that his comments had been blown out of proportion, but they said they supported the school board’s actions.

“It seems like a good idea to me,” said Roger Hammett, a local hospital worker. “They had to have a change to make everybody happy.”

In March, soon after the controversy flared, the high school was briefly closed because of a bomb threat. But the community was in obvious shock Monday following the weekend burning of the school.