But Brandy Springer, a mother of four mixed race children, was stunned when she moved to the area from Florida and learned her 12-year-old daughter couldn't run for class reporter because she wasn't the right race. Superintendent Russell Taylor posted a statement saying the practice had been in place for 30 years, dating back to a time when school districts across Mississippi came under close scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department over desegregation. In this middle school class officers election, there's no pretense of separate but equal: The highest a black student can aspire to is vice president of just one of the classes. Must Be White To Apply At This Mississippi School!  If we still have segregated proms in the American South, including in Mississippi, why not segregated middle school elections? Late last night, the principal of the school posted a statement on its website: 
 
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 "Student elections have not yet been held at Nettleton Middle School for the 2010-2011 school term. Springer's story spread rapidly on the Internet after she contacted a website for mixed families _ mixedandhappy.com. "The message that we're sending our children is that we do things based on race."
– After enduring a ruckus over its segregated student government elections, a Mississippi middle school has nixed rules it says were put into place some three decades ago in order to ensure minority representation. Under the rules, white students were allowed to run for class president one year, black students the next. Other positions were similarly segregated at Nettleton Middle School, reports AP. The brouhaha began when a mother learned her white daughter could not run for the position of sixth-grade reporter. It spread to the blogosphere and ultimately led to the superintendent's reversal: "It is the belief of the current administration that these procedures were implemented to help ensure minority representation and involvement in the student body," the statement said. "It is our hope and desire that these practices and procedures are no longer needed."