A few years ago, women students from Africa tried to wear their traditional headdresses to class. The principal insisted they could not.

The teacher, Wilma Jones, is a black woman who had suffered discrimination herself in the South. She went to bat for the students, arguing the headdresses were important to their culture. She pointed out that students from Iran and Iraq were allowed to wear headgear.

"This is not a basic baseball cap, this is part of culture," said Jones, a panelist at a public meeting Sunday. The session on multiculturalism in school was sponsored by the Utah Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Commission and held in the Salt Lake City Library, 210 E. 400 South.

The principal's response, according to Jones: "Absolutely not. They cannot wear scarves, period," she recalled.

"I lost my battle," Jones said. "I'm still angry about that."

Sunday's session drew only about a dozen audience members, in addition to a discussion panel and moderators.

However, Michael S. Styles, the commission's program manager, said those who attended had great spirit and the session was valuable. Other education and discussion meetings will take place for about the next 11 months at the library.

Usually they will be on the third Sunday of the month. But September's session — focusing on challenges of disabled people — will be on the fourth Sunday, he said.

"I think it's only going to increase in number and interest also," Styles said.

Another panel member, Utah Sen. James Evans, R-Salt Lake, said insensitivity works both ways. "We're all guilty" of putting people in categories, he said.

"I endured my share of injustices as a child, and one remembers that," said Evans, a black man who grew up in Orangeburg, S.C. before moving to Utah.

He suggested a good way to overcome barriers and improve students' sense of belonging is through after-school programs.

Evans called for creativity by Utah's schoolteachers. Creativity could cause some conflict and chaos, he acknowledged, but it is good to have "a vigorous exchange of ideas."

Sharon Moore, a teacher at Backman Elementary School in Rose Park and one of the panelists, said it's important to learn about other cultures. Without that knowledge, she said, "we become very insensitive and we become hurtful."

Teachers must "educate ourselves as to who our population is. . . . We need to have a safe haven for our children."

"There are issues of campus climate," said panelist Suzanne Espinoza, who works with high school recruiting at the University of Utah. Students should feel engaged with their schools, she added.

In 2003, she said, about 30,000 students graduated from high schools throughout Utah. Of these, 22,000 took the ACT tests, generally required for college acceptance.

"Of that number, 1,600 responded that they were students of color," Espinoza said. And of those, just over 700 said they had taken college preparatory courses in high school.

"College preparation happens over a course of year," she added.

Evans said attitudes of a student's family toward education are extremely important in fostering expectations about schooling. "There's also a social component that we have to invest in," he said, so students will understand that education is of real value.

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com