Sex scandal stirs racial tensions in southern town

Story Highlights

. Two white women teachers are accused of having sex with black male
students . Arrests stir racial tensions in conservative Southern town
. South Carolina community has a Ku Klux Klan museum
. The students' ages ranged from 11 to 15

CLINTON, South Carolina (AP) -- The arrest of two women teachers on
charges of having sex with their male students has brought cries of
lingering racism in one of South Carolina's most conservative
counties and evoked some of the South's oldest and deepest-seated
racial taboos.
Both women are white. The boys -- six in all -- are black.

Some of the blacks who make up more than a quarter of Laurens
County's 70,000 residents are upset over the handling of the two
cases, particularly the release of the teachers on bail.

They say the cases reflect the way crimes by whites against blacks in
the segregated South were treated less seriously than other offenses,
and blacks who leveled accusations against whites were less likely to
be believed.
"If this had been black teachers, they would not be out of jail right
now," said Corinnie Young, a 49-year-old bookstore employee who is
black.
Some blacks shudder to think what would have happened if the teachers
were black men and the students were white girls.

"I can assure you if it were an African American male who committed
such an offense against a white female, history shows us that the
charges, the punishment and the sentencing would be totally
different," said state NAACP president Lonnie Randolph. "The system
ain't blind when the perpetrator is an African American male or
female or when the victim is a white female."
Prosecutor defends home detention

Jerry Peace, the county prosecutor and a white man, said that the
teachers are wearing electronic tracking devices and that their
release on bail -- $125,000 for one, $110,000 for the other -- was
based not on race, but on the danger to the community and the
likelihood that the defendants might flee.
In any case, it would be unusual for someone accused of such a crime
to be held without bail. Deborah Ahrens, a visiting professor of
criminal law at the University of South Carolina, said of the bail
amounts for the two teachers: "For the clients that I've represented
in the past that were up for similar offenses, that sounds about
right."
Signs of racial tension, old and new, are not hard to find in Laurens
County. The school where one of the teachers worked used to be
blacks-only.
In the town of Laurens, where one of the teachers taught, an old
movie theater has been converted into a Ku Klux Klan museum and
paraphernalia store called The Red Neck Shop. There, visitors can buy
Confederate flags and bumper stickers, such as one that depicts three
Klansmen and reads "The Original Boys in the Hood."

Textile mills were once the chief source of jobs in the working-class
area about 60 miles northwest of the state capital of Columbia, but
the industry went into decline in the 1990s. The main employers now
include a maker of plastic coolers and Presbyterian College in
Clinton. As of 2003, nearly 15 percent of county residents lived
below the poverty line.
Mom complains of sex with 11-year-old

And as in many communities, most neighborhoods in the county are
either black or white. People of different races find themselves side
by side in one of two places: work or school.

Wendie Schweikert, a 37-year-old married woman who had been teaching
elementary school in Laurens for more than a decade, was arrested
last year after the mother of an 11-year-old boy accused her of
having sex with the boy at school at least twice.

Authorities said they found evidence bearing his DNA in her
classroom. She is also accused of having sex with him in her car near
a miniature golf course and arcade in Greenville, about 40 miles
away. Allenna Ward, a 24-year-old minister's daughter in her second year of
teaching, was fired February 28 after she was charged with having sex
with at least five boys.

Some of the alleged victims, 14 and 15 years old, were students at
the middle school in Clinton where Ward taught. Police say Ward, who
is married, had sex with the boys at the school, at a motel, in a
park and behind a restaurant.
Attempts to contact the women in person and by telephone were
unsuccessful, and their lawyers did not return repeated calls.

Black and white residents alike said they are shocked by the
accusations. Many echoed the sentiments of Peggy Hawkins, a
50-year-old white resident. "Boys are boys and she done wrong,"
Hawkins said of one of the teachers.
Some see racism at work
The Rev. David Kennedy, a local black activist, is among those who
see racism at work. He said the white teachers accused of preying on
black students figured "they can do what they want to do with them
and they know the consequences won't be great."

He suggested that blacks in town are too afraid to speak out:
"There's a long history of intimidation and it's a sin. It's unholy
in Laurens County to speak out."

Parents whose children go to E.B Morse Elementary School, where
Schweikert taught, say they have trouble reconciling the accusations
with the woman they knew.

"She was very involved," said Shea Mills, whose son attended the
school. "I remember she would make kids pick paper up in the halls."

Bell Street Middle School Principal Maureen Tiller said Ward did well
during an evaluation of her skills, and "personality-wise she seemed
to be fine."
Nicole Sullivan, whose daughter went to Schweikert's school, said
that when the case broke, students brought home notes saying the
teacher had resigned. The notes did not explain why.

"I don't want to say it was a racial thing, but if it were a white
victim and a black teacher, I think things would have been handled
differently," said Sullivan, who is black.