HELENA - The principal of a predominantly Native American middle school where five children killed themselves last year is under pressure to resign after she called dozens of failing children to the gym floor during an assembly.

Dale Fourbear, director of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes education program, says Patricia Black's decision to single out the students at Poplar Middle School could mean a setback for children trying to recover from the deaths and

20 attempted suicides in the same year.

"I think their mental well-being is fragile right now and there could be, well, how do I put it, there could be an impact, considering what happened last year," Fourbear said Monday.

Black, who is in her first year as principal, separated by name dozens of children in grades 5-7 who were failing at least one class from the rest of the approximately 160 students gathered at the Sept. 27 assembly.

Black said she only segregated the students at the end of the assembly so she could give them a private pep talk on how to improve their grades, and that she did not announce why she was calling them down to the floor.