May 7, 2004

Unfair Treatment of Gypsy Students

To the Editor:

Many thanks to Colin Woodard for his much-needed article on the educational discrimination faced by the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe ("An Uphill Battle for Europe's Gypsies," The Chronicle, March 19).

I would like to clear up one point and add another. As the author states, placing Romany students in schools for the mentally retarded is often justified by referring to the children's poor skills in the language of instruction. Not only is this an obviously