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RALEIGH -- Parents, students and concerned citizens called Wake County school's response to the U.S. Department of Education's Office Civil Right's Office investigation "intentionally misleading and grossly incompetent" Tuesday night at a school board meeting. The investigation is looking into claims of racial discrimination in student assignments and the elimination of the socioeconomic diversity policy.

"Based on your data, my children who live more than 15 miles from their school must be suffering from lower achievement," said Jim Martin, a parent from Apex. "Are we to simply conclude bus rides only hurt base students but they actually help magnet students? No, busing has little to nothing to do with student achievement. You've implied flawed conclusions by careless selection of data."

School leaders defended their policy changes and the response to the civil rights investigation.

"It's going to cause me to go back and look and make sure there was nothing misleading," said Ann Majestic, an attorney for Wake schools. "There was certainly nothing intended to be misleading. The main point we were trying to make is there was not evidence of intentional discrimination by board members and their policy change."

John Tedesco, a member of the Wake County School Board, said the complaints are unwarranted. "Obviously, everybody can take their data. These folks are here for a reason," he said. "Most of it have been the same folks that have been here all year long and they have their agenda and they're going to try to cherry pick for their agenda, their purpose."

The meeting only further highlighted the great divide between some members of the community and the Wake County School Board majority.

Also Tuesday night, police escorted a protester who had been arrested at a previous school board meeting off the property. The protester, Seth Keel, was sitting in the audience holding a protest sign when he was escorted out. The school system has banned arrested protesters from returning to board meetings unless they agree ahead of time in writing not to cause a disturbance.