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Mar 21, 2008 6:37 am US/Eastern
School Member Apologizes After Using Racial Slur
WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) ―
School officials told a board member to apologize rather than resign for using a racial slur.
Jeffrey L. Morse offered to quit during the board's closed session last week, when members discussed a complaint filed against him, according to Edmund O'Meally, an attorney for the Board of Education of Carroll County.
The complaint was made by a school system worker. It involved a remark Morse made about rock that was creating problems for employees at a school construction site.
"Mr. Morse admitted to having made the comment, admitted that it was highly inappropriate, admitted that it was a stupid thing to say," O'Meally said Thursday. "The board members expressed concern that he had made the comment. Mr. Morse apologized."
Last week, Morse met with those who had heard the remark and offered "his sincere and heartfelt apology," O'Meally said.
Superintendent Charles I. Ecker said no other action was taken.
"The board was of the opinion that Mr. Morse was sincerely apologetic," O'Meally said. "Certainly that, I think, was a factor in their decision not to do something further."
Morse was appointed to the board last year to fill another member's term and is running for his first full term. He said Thursday that he has since repeated his offer to step down, and that the board "has quite specifically asked me not to."
Morse also apologized in a meeting Thursday with Jean Lewis, the president of the Carroll County chapter of the NAACP; Virginia Harrison, the chairwoman of the county's Human Relations Commission; and Patricia Levroney, the school system's minority achievement liaison, said Ecker, who also was present.
"It was a really good idea," Harrison said. "He's taking responsibility for his actions, and I think that's a good thing."
"This was an isolated, really bad, really stupid mistake, not an endemic feeling of the board," Morse said. "We need to figure out how to use this so that people of all ages -- not just students, but others -- maybe learn to think before they make quick comments."
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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