Decatur protesters greeted Gov. Bob Riley Wednesday in Athens, saying that black students are not getting due process in expulsions from Decatur City Schools.

It was not clear whether Riley or his entourage heard the chanting or talked to the protesters.

Black activist Doris Baker led about a half-dozen protesters, who police say obtained a demonstration permit Tuesday in advance of Riley’s re-election campaign stop at the Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives.

Police blocked off a side street across from the museum and told the Decatur protesters they would have to confine their activities to that area.

Baker said she became involved because 78 percent of students sent to Decatur’s Center for Alternatives to Suspension and Expulsion (CASE) are black. She said students are also being expelled from the system without being afforded due process.

Protesters carried signs reading, “Still lynching in Decatur,” with crude sketches of hangings.

Baker said if the community’s black students have problems, she wants the state Board of Education to send in psychologists to help, but her letters are getting passed to state Superintendent Joe Morton and help is not coming quickly enough.

Baker said she had sent “letter after letter” to Riley’s office, asking for help for black students in Decatur. “I want Governor Riley and (Attorney General) Troy King to address this,” said Baker.

One of the protesters accompanying Baker, Sharon Kirkland, said her son, Joshua Kirkland, 17, was jailed after a scuffle with school officials and a police officer. After young Kirkland was sent to CASE, his mother tried to enter the school and was cited for trespassing and was forbidden from coming on school property.

“My son’s being harassed because of me wanting to press charges,” said Kirkland.

Kirkland said her son’s problems stem from him wearing a T-shirt to school with a picture of slain rap artist Tupac Shakur on the front.

“They told my son to put his shirt in a bag,” said Kirkland. She said that by the time she reached the school, “My son had been choked with a knee in the back and walked out the door.”

She said records say that her son punched and shoved the officer.

Another protester, Linda Jackson, said a 5-year-old girl who attends her church was also sent to CASE for “pulling her pants down.”

Baker also questioned a recent incident in which a school security officer used a Taser to subdue a 13-year-old, middle-school student who school officials said became unruly.

“She only weighs 90 pounds and the police officer weighs 200,” said Baker.

Baker said she was told by the state Board of Education that Decatur Superintendent Sam Houston would have to send a request to the state to pay for a psychologist for the system. She said she is trying to work with Houston.