Defiance on Trial

Six months after court-ordered busing went into effect in Louisville and the surrounding areas of Jefferson County (TIME, Sept. 15), more than 2,000 of the 129,000 children scheduled to attend public school in the district are still staying away from classes. Now local officials are moving to force recalcitrant parents into line. This week the first boycotting parents to go on trial before a jury will appear in a special court created last November. The charge: contributing to the truancy of their children. Says Juvenile Court Prosecutor Frank Burke Jr.: "We'll have more than 1,000 cases before it's all over."

The ruling that jury trials be held came after Special Juvenile Judge Joseph Ray, hearing a case without a jury, convicted a white suburban couple, Mr. and Mrs. Emmitt Durham, and sentenced them to a year in jail for not allowing their son Alfred, 12, to be bused to a Louisville school. The Durhams are appealing the verdict to a circuit court and demanding a trial by jury.

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