INTERNATIONAL

Baum Victorious

(LNS and The Guardian)--"I wanted to give people a little heart, to know if they stand up against the system, they don't have to go down the drain," said Jeanne Baum last week reflecting on her recent victory. After two and a half years of court fights, harassment and separation, Native American activist Baum and her daughter Siba Baum were celebrating a victory last week in their joint assault against racism in the schools.

On March 29, the Suffolk County Family Court in Hauppauge, N.Y., refused to set a date to remove Jeanne Baum's daughter, Siba, from her custody. In announcing the decision, the judge said he never had any intention of carrying out the custody order, and would not do so as long as Jeanne and Siba Baum remain outside Suffolk County. The judge let stand, however, a 1976 "child neglect" conviction against Baum for pulling Siba out of school.

It all began when 12-year-old Siba turned in a paper to her English class teacher about Geronimo. "Geronimo is seen as a blood thirsty savage," Siba wrote. "He and his people were trying to defend their way of life from invaders, who are pictured as heroes, settlers and explorers. When the Indian fought back, he was the villain, and it still goes on now."

Siba's teacher, Carol Duarte, read the paper and returned it with the following comment: "Indians got what they deserved." When Siba confronted the teacher, she elaborated, stating that "Indians are lazy,'

" "should get off the reservations," and 'should be ashamed of their atrocities."

At meetings demanded by the Baums, school officials continually refused to take any punitive or remedial action to correct the school's derogatory presentation of Native Americans. When Baum, a Siksika Blackfoot, finally removed Siba from the school, school officials responded by having Baum charged in Family Court with "child neglect."

In a recent interview, Baum discussed the issues in the case and its effect on her life and Siba's. "The issue is not that Siba was insulted," Baum explained. "The case started when the school locked up and stone-walled the incident. We're talking about institutionalized racism--not one aberrant teacher. We're taking the Brown decision and the 14th Amendment: children have a right to a decent, non-racist education. If the school defaults, it's the school's responsibility to change, not the parents to find another school."

"'You would think, if you read white man's books, that there were a few Indians here and then they disappeared gracefully when the white settlers came. They [educators] have every reason to avoid the subject of Native Americans. It's a very sickening reality. Why call them settlers at all? They were invaders. They had 'heroic battles' and we had 'disgusting bloody battles.""*

Since Baum's conviction of child neglect, the Baums have lived on several reservations in the Midwest in order to avoid having Siba seized by police. On the reservations Jeanne and Siba were forced to move.several times after law officers discovered their hiding places and started to harass them. Yet this harassment has not weakened their determi nation to continue their fight.

"Instead of frightening us off, it's radicalized us, made us more determined. To think--a woman in a wheel chair--a gray haired grandmother and her 12. year-old daughter, could threaten them so much! The system's foundation must be very weak.'

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Today, it is estimated that 25 percent of Native American children have been removed from their parents' custody by white welfare agencies and courts. The boarding schools in which many children are placed have a high rate of runaways and suicides among Native American children.

Jeanne Baum was removed from her family at the age of 3. She recalls how she felt about the policy:

NEWS

The

Jeanne Boum speaks at an International Women's Day rally in New York City, March 11, 1978. LNS Women's Graphics

"They did anything to break up the families. They [social workers and other government agencies] came with papers. No one expected anything legal. You can't even use the word 'social worker' when you're with Indians because they'll go to another room--that's what it means. Our teenages have the highest suicide rate in the world."

Meanwhile, as the lengthy appeals process continues in an effort to completely overturn the original conviction, Baum said sheds considering calling together a tribunal of children of all races to testify about the racist nature of the U.S. school system. A class action suit could follow.

Reflecting on her victory, Baum credited her success to the backing she received from supporters around the country. "When this whole thing started, when Siba and I were sitting at home trying to figure out what we could do to fight this thing, I had no way of assuming that it would get so big," Jeanne Baum concluded. "I wanted to expose the system for what it was--and I think I successfully did that."

Kiddie Klan Attacks Gays

New York (LNS)--More than 100 male students at two Oklahoma City schools have organized student Ku Klux Klan chapters to wage a "campaign of terror against homosexuals."

It is estimated that from 112 to 132 youths, mostly in their mid-teens, have joined the two teen-age Klan chapters at Putnam City High School and Putnam City West High School.

"We're not against blacks like the old Klan," said one boy recruited by the KKK. "We are against gays and the clubs that support them and are going to try to shut them down because this activity is morally and socially wrong. ..

WW II Vets Granted Benefits

Women pilots who flew military planes during World War II have been granted full veterans' benefits after 34 years of having such status denied to them. The House of Representatives approved by voice vote a bill that makes the 800 surviving members of the Women Air Force Service Pilots equal in status'to male veterans of the war. The Senate had earlier passed the bill.

"Battered Husbands" Rejected

The following resolution was passed by Sociolo.. gists for Women in Society (SWS) at the group's. meeting in Cleveland on February 5, 1978:

Sociologists for Women in Society affirms its stand against the misuse of any data which would lead the American public to believe that the socalled battered husband syndrome is a significant social problem in this country. We rather affirm that the most critical area of family violence is the batterIng of women and their children and that the extent and significance of this problem not only has been underreported but stands in danger of being trivialized.

Bakke's School Discriminates in Forward, Not Reverse

New York (LNS)--A University of California professor has come up with a set of charges that could blow the Bakke "reverse discriminaiton"' case out the window. That is, if the charges ever get heard.

Paul Goodman, president of the Faculty Union at UC-Davis, recently charged that the school, contrary to both the California Supreme Court's opinion and supporters of Allen Bakke, does in fact discriminate against Third World students at its medical school.

Bakke has charged that he is a victim of reverse discrimination because of a University admissions policy that reserves 16 out of 100 places in its medical school for Third World students.

In a letter to University General Counsel Donald Reidhaar, Goodman made the following charges against the school:

--Since its inception, the UC-Davis Medical School has never admitted a Black student under regular admissions procedures.

...The Med School attempted to apply a quota to cut Third World student admissions to a minimum by routinely turning qualified Third World applicants away under the regular admissions program. --Med School Dean John Tupper reversed regular admissions committee procedures in order to admit sons of prominent political and medical figures. --Black students admitted to the Med School have been subjected to racial slurs, discriminatory grading and disciplinary measures.

--The Med School falsified minority admissions statistics by counting foreign Third World students in its "affirmative action" reports.

Goodman has offered to furnish the names of students and faculty members at Davis who will back up his allegations. Copies of the letter have been sent to every regent, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the NAACP.

It is now up to the University of California, Allen Bakke's legal opponent, to ensure that the U.S. Supreme Court has all the information Goodman is prepared to provide before the court hands down its decision. The University's sincerity in fighting against Bakke and for affirmative action already became suspect when it was revealed that a University admissions officer encouraged Bakke to bring the suit challenging the Third World admissions policy. Now, the reasons why UC might be reluctant to air Goodman's charges as a way to win in court are

Last November, a squad of Kiddie Klansmen brandishing baseball bats attacked an alleged gay bar, injuring several of the people inside. In addi tion to physically assaulting gays, the Kiddie Klansmen have initiated a letter-writing campaign urging public officials to close gathering places of gays,...only too obvious...

April, 1978/What She Wants/Page 5