Bermuda may be creating a racial time bomb with its voluntary segregation of blacks and whites during their school years, said Sandys Middle School principal Melyvn Bassett.

He said if children do not mix during their school years, the division could carry on in later life and help destroy the Island.

Speaking at the Hamilton Rotary Club yesterday, Dr. Bassett said: ?Twelve years ago there were twice as many students enrolled in our public schools as there are at present.

?There was a greater mix of children of different race and social classes, particularly at the primary level. The question I would like to pose is, will there be a future price to pay for the expanding division between Bermuda?s youth that may result from the creation of a dual education system?

?The point is, if the country?s youth do not attend school together ? with primarily white and middle class black children enrolled in our private schools and children of our black working class families enrolled in our public schools ? will the continued expansion of private school enrolment or conversely, the decline in the enrolment in public schools, result in greater social and racial division of our young people??

He said if this division did occur the community would have to ask itself whether there were sufficient opportunities outside school to foster relations. ?Not to have the Island?s children mixing more across social and racial lines, in such a small community, is not in Bermuda?s long-term best interest. The question is, can we be setting ourselves up for a serious future problems??

Dr. Bassett said he was not calling for social engineering or attacking private education. ?I ask these questions to attempt to provoke some thought regarding the emergence of a dual education system and the value and importance of providing opportunities for the interaction of Bermuda?s youth. If not through education then how?

?Is the expansion of private education in Bermuda occurring at the expense of our public education system? Is public education suffering from the flight of some segments of our population from public schools??

Dr. Bassett said it was dangerous to neglect any part of Bermuda?s population and that improving the public education system would help secure quality of life for all.

?For, if we do not sew the seeds that will foster healthy youth development, the racial and social mixing between all of our young people of school age, we could harvest a crop that could destroy our very delicate industries and ultimately our beautiful prosperous country.?

Rotary member Jefferson Sousa, a white Bermudian, said he had gone through the public school system and had put his son, now in his 20s, through Warwick Secondary School.

But had been forced to take him out because of the prejudice he faced from blacks as the only white child there.

?If I hadn?t have taken my son out of that school I think I would have lost my son,? said Mr. Sousa. He said he was the only father that went to PTA meetings.

Another white Rotary member, Chris Morris, said friends of his had sent their kids to a predominantly black school and they had been happy for the first two years but they then ran into problems.

?One summer became the difference,? Mr. Morris said. ?It wasn?t the children. The influence was from outside the schools.?

He said the prejudice didn?t start with the children but was passed on to them by adults who needed to address their own problems.