Diversity on display at Hiawatha Elementary School

HIAWATHA - At a diversity night held Thursday at Hiawatha Elementary School, parents and teachers shared a meal, watched student groups perform and celebrated their students' 15 native countries and languages.

A federal investigation into racial disparities in the Cedar Rapids Community School District's discipline practices, they said, was far from their minds.

The event featured Bobby Norfolk, a three-time Emmy-winning storyteller. Families could get their photos taken in front of world flags and complete a work sheet about their countries of origin. A student choral group performed songs in Spanish, and a small group of student dancers put on a routine from Nepal.

'It's a blessing that we have diversity,” said Hiawatha principal Eric Christenson. 'Kids are learning from each other, kids are learning customs and beliefs from other countries. This is the real world, this school.”

Cedar Rapids schools remain under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, a department spokesperson confirmed Thursday. The investigation centers on whether the district has discriminated against black students by disciplining them at a rate disproportionate to their percentage of enrollment.

Hiawatha parents and educators, however, said they have not seen any such problems firsthand.

'We haven't even discussed it,” said parent Jessica Larsen, who has two children at Hiawatha. 'I had forgotten about that.”

Hiawatha is one of five elementary schools in the Cedar Rapids district with an English language learners program, said teacher Julie Bradley, who is in charge of Hiawatha's program. Partly as a result, the school is more diverse than the district overall. According to the most recent data released by the U.S. Department of Education, Hiawatha enrollment was 71.9 percent white, 12.2 percent Hispanic, 9.4 percent black and 6.6 percent Asian in 2011.

Black students represented 50 percent of Hiawatha's in-school suspensions and 33 percent of its out-of-school suspensions in 2011, according to the Department of Education data. But those figures represented only eight total suspensions.

By comparison, the Cedar Rapids district overall was 74.9 percent white, 4 percent Hispanic, 17.4 percent black, 2.8 percent Asian and 0.7 percent Native American/Alaska Native in 2011, according to the Department of Education data. Black students accounted for about 40 percent each of in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions and expulsions.

Christenson said he doesn't think race is a factor in Hiawatha's discipline practices.

'I never really thought about (the investigation) too much,” he said. 'We don't look at color; we look at behavior and academics.”

Sitting in the back of the room as the Hiawatha Highlights finished their last song, parent and Kenyan immigrant Vincent Asige said he hadn't given the investigation much thought, either.

Asige said his stepchildren, who are white, have not had any problems at Hiawatha and other Cedar Rapids schools. He said he is concerned for his biological children, however, who will soon move into the district from Kenya.

'This is a deep-rooted thing,” Asige said of racial discrimination. 'It's not something that can be done in a day.”

More diversity nights, he said, could help, because 'they bring people together.”