Class action suit accuses Alabama district of systemic race discrimination
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Alabama have filed a complaint in a class-action lawsuit accusing Monroe County school officials with subjecting African American students at Monroeville Junior High School to racial epithets and slurs, racially-motivated discipline, and racially segregated classrooms, practices that deny African American students their constitutional right to equal educational opportunities. In a news release, the ACLU said, “ ‘Students at Monroeville Junior High are systematically singled out by teachers and administrators for punishment and forced to endure hostile and discriminatory treatment simply because of their race,’ said Catherine Kim, staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Project. ‘Such behavior is a vestige of a tragic past and is simply unacceptable in any contemporary American school setting.’ Some of the most egregious allegations in the lawsuit document the use of racial epithets and slurs made by teachers and school officials toward African American students. School officials refer to African American students as ‘n______’ and ‘filthy trash,’ and they have told African American parents that they would not be permitted to run the school ‘like a bunch of animals.’ … The complaint further alleges that school officials retaliate against parents who object to the racially discriminatory treatment of their children. Children whose parents complain are singled out for more punishment, and parents who express their concerns about the use of discipline on their child are banned from the school grounds and threatened with arrest. Even worse, when these same parents seek assistance from the district’s Board of Education, the school board refuses to permit these parents from airing their complaints. The Board of Education prohibits any public speaking related to racial discrimination at its board meetings, a denial of parents’ free speech rights.” Mark Boardman is the school system's attorney and says the allegations of racism were investigated and found to be false. He said the school system is looking forward to having its case heard in court.
Source: Fox Ten (WALA/WBPG), 5/21/08, By Staff
[Editor’s Note: The press release, which contains a link to the legal complaint filed in the case, is below. Meanwhile, the Associated Press (AP) reports that complaints of racial disparities in Greenwich, Connecticut’s public schools have led to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman for ED’s Office for Civil Rights, is quoted as saying an investigation “in no way implies that the civil rights office has made a determination on the merits of the case.”]
ACLU press release
Source: Boston Globe, 5/25/08, By Associated Press