The N&R reports accusations of racism and bullying from Guilford County Schools maintenance workers:
Workers said they have been cursed or threatened by supervisors, unfairly accused of stealing and told to take shortcuts on repairs. Some black employees said they are treated differently from their white counterparts.
Will Crosby thought so. In the past decade, he had been passed over seven times for a promotion in heating and air conditioning, better known as HVAC.
The applicants hired came from outside the school system and were familiar with only residential, not commercial, HVAC, he said.
The applicants were white; Crosby is black.
A few months ago, with help from Hayes, he got a promotion.
“I had felt like throwing up, that I was less than a man,’’ said Crosby, 35 , a married father of two . “I had been here this long, and I was not getting anywhere.’’
And an NCAE official describes the “plantation-style” management of the facilities department. For a quite a while now GCS’ facilities department has had the reputation of being at best inept and at worst corrupt, so nothing anyone says would surprise me.
But charges of racism are different, especially in the politically-correct world of education. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and how GCS handles it.
