It looks like the 30 protesters who were arrested at Wake County school board meetings in 2010 will finally be going to court.

Court dates have been scheduled for four Fridays between March 2 and April 13. Prosecutors grouped the court dates for the defendants based on when they were arrested.

This means the people arrested in March and June 2010 will be in court March 2. This group includes the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP; the Rev. Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church; Tim Tyson, a Duke University historian and author; and Dante Strobino, co-founder of the self-described socialist group Raleigh FIST.

Wake County school board John Tedesco hit on a wide range of topics during an interview today on the Bill LuMaye Show on WPTF.

After calling him "one of the heroes," LuMaye asked Tedesco about the opposition "using race and fear" to block the school board majority's actions. Tedesco agreed they were using fear while touting increased minority placement in advanced classes, lower suspension rates and cutting the budget (so far) without any teacher layoffs.

"The opposition is most afraid that we're going to show that conservative leadership can make public education successful once again," Tedesco said.

Wake County school board member John Tedesco's colleagues weren't joking when they repeatedly said he was charged up on caffeine when he gave a fiery speech at last Thursday's Northern Wake Republican Club meeting.

During the speech, Tedesco praised the board majority's actions since December 2009 in "revamping public education." He also ripped into liberals, including what he called their "unholy trinity" of the NAACP, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and Raleigh FIST.

"They will try and scare people," Tedesco said of the opposition. "People use fear. These are cowards who understand that anger can be power as long as there is a victim on TV. So they will strike fear."

Raleigh FIST is using the Wake County school diversity fight to help highlight another "Day of Action to Defend Education."

In a Sunday blog post, Raleigh FIST (Fight Imperialism Stand Together) urged people to help them plan for the Oct. 7 protest in Raleigh, which is part of a series of protests that will be taking place nationally. The socialist group is linking Wake schools with other issues such as cuts in education funding and letting some illegal immigrants receive in-state school tuition.

Critics of the school board majority are using the familiar theme of accusing conservative businessman Art Pope of being the mastermind for all the changes.

Are you looking for an "Anti Ron Marigotta" button?

It's one of the things being sold on the new website created by NC H.EA.T., the youth group formed in June to fight the Wake County school board majority. The button contains a picture of Margiotta, the chairman of the school board, with a slash running across his face.

For a $1, you can also buy a "Anti segregation" button or a "Listen To The Students" button.

Socialists, Communists and anarchists aren't the only ones who are closely following the Wake County school diversity fight.

The white nationalists have also been monitoring the student assignment fight. American Renaissance, called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, regularly carries excerpts of news stories about the ongoing situation in Wake.

In the latest example, American Renaissance carried the N&O story about AdvancED's accreditation review of the Wake school system. Most of the reader comments about the review and African Americans were harsh, to put it mildly.

The quick summary of the message from Thursday night's meeting is that neighborhood schools and political conservatism are bad.

As noted in today's article, the teens of N.C. HEAT argued that neighborhood schools will lead to resegregation and that the Wake County school board majority is controlled by conservative groups. The teens didn't have nice words to say about Steve Noble, chairman of Called2Action, and conservative businessmen Art Pope and Bob Luddy.

Enloe High student Robert Wright said the school board's policy is being set by Called2Action and Pope. He said members of the board majority are "puppets used by conservative organizations."

Courtesy of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, protesters have a permit to demonstrate outside today's Wake County school board meeting.

Elena Everett, community media director of the left-wing, Durham-based SCSJ, filed the paperwork for the permit to demonstrate outside the school admin building on Wake Forest Road. The group had also done the paperwork for the March 2 protest.

The SCSJ has been heavily involved in the efforts to oppose the school board majority's efforts to end busing for socioeconomic diversity. In addition to helping with the March 2 protest, the group provided legal aid for the lawsuit that was dismissed Friday.

CORRECTED TO SAY THEY HAD ALSO FILED PAPERWORK FOR MARCH 2 PROTEST

Wake County school board member John Tedesco joined fellow conservatives at today's Tea Party rally at the State Capitol to protest high taxes and big government.

Tedesco told ther crowd that the reason the new school board majority got elected and voted against the diversity policy is "because there's an army of people like you out here today who said enough."

Tedesco's appearance at the rally likely will feed into the complaints of Raleigh FIST (Fight Imperalism Stand Together), the socialist group that held a counter protest to the Tea Party event. Some of the same people from Raleigh FIST were among those who protested at last month's school board meeting.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

This has not been a great week for marketing Wake County to the rest of the nation.

As noted in today's article, Wake's family-friendly reputation has been replaced with images of shouting students and police handcuffing protesters. Critics of the new Wake County school board majority say they're tarnishing the area's national reputation while supporters are blaming the problems on outside agitators, some of whom have a lengthy record of political activism and arrests.

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said the situation is causing such as black eye for Wake that the county commissioners need to exert control over the school board. Meeker, who spoke at the Friends of Diversity Press Conference the day before the election in October, is married to school board member Anne McLaurin.

UPDATE: CORRECTED LINK FOR HARDEE'S ARREST RECORD