Voucher Moms Outraged By Kids' Treatment At Fla. Private School.

Two single mothers in Pensacola say they are outraged over how their children have been treated in a Roman Catholic school that is taking part in Florida's new controversial voucher law, and they want them back in the public schools.

Latonga Reed and Joyce Patterson say .their five children are being mistreated at St. John the Evangelist School, one of nine private schools participating in the voucher program. "I think my children are being singled out from the other children," Patterson told the Pensacola News Journal. "I don't think they are being treated right. They are not friendly to us there."

Patterson said her 10-year-old son has been subjected to racial slurs and shunned by other students. "They seem like they are very prejudiced," she said. "It seems like they are very unhappy that these kids got chosen to go to this school."

Reed said her 7-year-old daughter has been throwing up in school, due, Reed believes, to the fast-food lunches the school serves. She said school officials never called to tell her that her daughter was ill. She also complained that another student spat in her 5-year-old son's ice cream one day.

Both women are also angry because they lost the free school lunches and breakfasts they had been receiving when their children attended Spencer Bibbs Academy. Bibbs, a public school, is one of two public institutions rated as failing under the law, making its students eligible for vouchers.

Education officials at first refused to allow the children to go back to Bibbs, saying the voucher law would not allow it. Under increasing pressure, Gov. Jeb Bush, who came up with the voucher plan, intervened and asked Bibbs officials to take the students back. Bibbs officials agreed, and Patterson's children have already re-enrolled. (Reed's case is still under consideration because she no longer lives in the Bibbs district.)

Sister Patricia Pepitone, principal of St. John the Evangelist, told the News Journal that Patterson and Reed had not brought their complaints to her. If they had, Pepitone said, the school would have responded.

Reed disputed that, asserting she was ignored when she brought her concerns to St. John officials in the past. "They are just real rude there," she said. "I've tried to talk about some of these issues, but they just have a frown on their face."

Patterson's son, Marquis Adams, said he was glad to be back in a public school. "We had more friends there, we fit in with the other kids," he said. "They know about us and what we're like. When we act up, they always knew how to fix us."

In the wake of the controversy, state Rep. DeeDee Ritchie, who opposes vouchers, said she would introduce legislation that would allow families dissatisfied with voucher schools to enroll their child in any public school in their district.