Madera’s long, hot summer

For The Madera Tribune

Duane Furman, shown here, was MUSD superintendent during the racial unrest of 1974.

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In the summer of 1974, racial trouble erupted in Madera. A 16 year-old male student at the high school threw a young coed, fully clothed, into the school swimming pool. Two female high school teachers, Rose Harper and Sharon Weldon, tried unsuccessfully to question the perpetrator. Madera High Vice Principal Perry Harper and Learning Director Barry Crow intervened, and before it was all over, charges of misdemeanor battery were brought against the two administrators for allegedly roughing up the student. 

Harper and Crow stood trial, and on September 1 the jury rendered a “not guilty” verdict. However, if anyone breathed a sigh of relief, it was a bit premature.

The end of the trial did not squelch the controversy. On September 17, approximately 70 student demonstrators calling for “students’ rights” and “better administrators” paraded in the quad behind the Madera High School administration building while Crow looked on. As had happened many times that summer, tires on Harper’s car were slashed.