Reply #200: I grew up in rural Virginia, and I don't remember anything like this.

[jdj]

But I was exceptionally lucky in that the principal of my high school was a Black woman, Patricia B. Lancaster, the first in the state and one of less than ten women principals. My civics teacher was an amazing Jewish woman named Toby Friedman, who educated us about the holocaust, which included bringing some horrific film from the holocaust camps (medical experiments) and showing them in class. I't heartbreaking to say that I don't know if she could get away with that today.

Ms. Friedman took us to Washington D.C. umpteen times on field trips and I am so glad that she was our chaperone on those trips, we got her perspective, and she was a ball of fire. Of course I did not appreciate it at the time, but looking back I can't believe how fortunate I was. My senior year I moved to a 4A school that was in the "West Wealth Sector" of Knoxville. The school and everything in it were state of the art, but no where was the diversity I had seen in rural VA. It was all achingly middle class/nouveau riche political conservatism, and just a handful of black students in a school of about 4000 kids.