I would have wanted my kids in one of those assemblies, no matter if they were the smartest ones in the school.

Once again, of course, I find myself in the minority on what the principal at Denver's Morey Middle School did a few weeks ago.

People now are painting Dori Claunch as some sort of unseeing, backwoods segregationist nitwit, without a clue about the 1950s struggle against separate- but-equal or the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Dori Claunch, I get it.

The back story on this is that 53 percent of black sixth-graders at Morey were deemed "proficient" at reading, compared with 89 percent of their white peers.

Given that this month's CSAP testing loomed, the historical knowledge that black kids just don't do as well on it, Dori Claunch gathered up each of her black sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in a pair of assemblies.

She wanted to give them a pep talk.

Maybe in past years she and others had missed something. Perhaps there was secret key of sorts that would unlock the inherent wisdom of African-American kids at Morey, allowing them to better succeed.

At the very least, she would bring them together to let them know she and her staff badly wanted for them the things they and their parents wanted. She would talk to them of their fears and failures, to perhaps engage them in thinking about the future.

On Jan. 30, she called each black eighth-grader into an assembly.

The assembly would be led by Gwen Victor, who is black, also a longtime friend of Dori Claunch's, who today is her assistant principal.

By her account, the meeting was a cordial one that hardly focused on individual academic performance.

It concentrated on their potential, speaking in matter-of-fact tones about the under-representation of blacks in universities in Colorado and nationwide, of their over-representation in state and federal penitentiaries, that it didn't have to be that way. "I just sort of hung out in the back," Dori Claunch said.

The kids spoke on all manner of topics. Gwen Victor told them of a college fair scheduled for Feb. 2. Most signed up. Many of the students stayed to chat long after the assembly.

"We thought, gosh, that went well. Maybe we should do another," Dori Claunch recalled.

The sixth- and seventh- graders assembled Feb. 9.

Kevin Adams, a seventh-grade teacher who is black, led the assembly.

He spoke to them of advocating for themselves for what they needed from teachers and administrators, that they were not in it alone, that everyone at the school wanted them to achieve.

"I told them that if there were problems, we could solve them together," Kevin Adams recounted.

Five parents called after the assemblies were held, Dori Claunch said. After its purpose was explained, four joined the school parents' committee. The other parent, she said, still cannot accept what happened.

The stories in the media recently, she said, have improperly characterized the assemblies as CSAP-driven. The idea of such assemblies arrived early in the year, she said, during consultation with parents, clergy and others in the community, about how to achieve excellence.

White students and others who are underachieving also are being mentored. "We often pull out other struggling kids," Dori Claunch insisted.

The week's furor surprised her only to the extent that the assemblies occurred more than a month ago, she said.

And it hasn't "scared me off," she said. She now is planning a series of focus groups involving students, parents and community members to address academic needs.

The difference is each participating student must have parental permission.

"The main thing is we want students and parents (to be) part of the process of achieving academic success," Gwen Victor said. "We know they can achieve it. It is our job to help them do it. It is why we got into education in the first place. If others read something sinister into it, I cannot help that."

There was - and may still be - a time when black and other ethnic minority children were flat ignored in schools, who were allowed simply to put in their time before being sent off into a world totally unprepared and destined to trouble the rest of us.

It should set off alarm bells whenever principals in our public schools do anything based solely on race. Dori Claunch, in this regard, is perhaps being a bit disingenuous when she says the CSAP test had little to do with the assemblies.

Everyone knows the CSAP is the measure by which she, her teachers and her school ultimately will be judged. Yet if that fear meant she had to fully concentrate on her biggest underachieving group, to call them together to raise those children up, so be it.

Indeed, if Dori Claunch's greatest sin is gathering up students based solely on the color of their skin to tell them to forget the statistics, that she cared about them, to beg them for ways she and her staff can help them to achieve, I dare say we need a lot more sinners like her teaching our children.

johnsonw@RockyMountainNews.com or 303 954-2763

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