By Sue Kiesewetter
Enquirer contributor

TRENTON - A complaint from a mother who said her biracial daughters were being harassed has prompted Edgewood Schools to hire a consultant to improve diversity training for students and teachers in the largely white, rural school district.

"Our daughters have been harassed off and on for the past several years," Dottie Cash said of her 16- and 14-year-old adopted daughters. "Part of our problem is that our girls haven't always told us about it."

Cash said she became concerned last month when a boy on a school bus said either he was going to, or wanted to, hang her daughter, Lauren. Similar messages have been written in the school's bathroom, Lauren said.

Superintendent Tom York said the first he had heard of any such problems was when Cash spoke at Monday's school board meeting. Consultant Bruce Atwater was brought in this week to do an assessment of the district and make recommendations on diversity education for students and training for teachers and staff. Atwater is a former assistant superintendent in Middletown schools.

"I want him to see what is going on and how we can make it better for students," York said. "I'm sure there will be some immediate things and long term."

Cash said she is pleased with the immediate response from school officials and has been told the students involved in threatening her daughter have been disciplined.

"The school can't tell me what the punishment was, but it was swift. I have to trust it was adequate," Cash said. "I never dreamed we'd still be fighting these battles," she said.

Lauren, a junior at Edgewood High School, said the bus incident was not an isolated one in the Butler County school district. Only 49 of the district's 3,628 students - 1.3 percent - are people of color.

"It's always bothered me. I'm glad something is being done about it. Before everybody treated it like it wasn't a big deal," Lauren said. "I just kept quiet about it. I'm so tired of it. It's getting worse."

"I think it's time they realize more black people are moving into the community," Lauren said. "They need to make people feel like they belong because I don't feel like I belong at all."

Atwater already has started meeting with students, York said.