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Pitt County school desegregation trial opens

PRE News & Ideas | By George Olsen
Published July 22, 2013 at 6:06 AM EDT

INTRO – A trial surrounding racial assignment policies in the Pitt County School system gets underway today. George Olsen has more.

A group of African American parents and the Pitt County Coalition for Educating Black Children filed suit seeking the reversal of a Pitt County Schools student assignment plan they claim has resegregated several district schools. They also object to Pitt County Schools seeking a new status under federal law claiming they’ve eliminated the effects of past racial segregation. This is the first major case since 1999 in the state where a school system seeks so-called “unitary status” to get out from under court supervision. Pitt County Schools were found in federal court in the 1960s to be operating a racially segregated system. That case was re-opened in 2008, ultimately leading to this trial. I’m George Olsen.
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ENC Regional News PITT COUNTY SCHOOLS
George Olsen
George Olsen is a 1977 Havelock High School graduate. He received his B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1982 where he got his first taste of non-commercial radio working for their student station WUSC. After graduation he worked about five years in commercial radio before coming to work at Public Radio East where he has remained since outside of a nearly 3-year stint as jazz and operations coordinator at WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the early 1990s. On his return to eastern North Carolina he hosted classical music for Public Radio East before moving into the Morning Edition host position and now can be heard on All Things Considered. He also hosts and produces The Sound, five hours of Americana, Roots Rock and Contemporary Folk weekday evenings on PRE Public Radio East News & Ideas, and is a news and feature producer for Public Radio East.
See stories by George Olsen