EACS sets plan to address racism

East Allen County Schools officials conducted a news conference Tuesday morning in response to a recent racially charged incident at Heritage Junior-Senior High School.

The district offered a plan on how to prevent such things from happening again, including:

*Instituting student study circles to talk about racism.

*Recruit volunteers to work with Heritage and Southwick Elementary School teachers on diversity issues.

*Review community programs to decide which ones they want to help the district.

*Get the message to students and staff that racial slurs and derogatory comments will not be tolerated.

The plan will be part of a Heritage schoolwide announcement to be broadcast by Principal Chris Hissong on Tuesday afternoon.

The Rev. Stephen Terry, the school board president, apologized about the lack of an immediate response to the recent incident.

For more on this story, see Wednesday’s editions of The Journal Gazette or visit www.journalgazette.net after 7 a.m. Wednesday.