Dallas board to discuss discrimination suit
According to the Dallas Morning News, the board of trustees for the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) is planning to meet in a closed session to discuss a lawsuit filed in federal court that alleges the district provides inferior programs and facilities to black and lower-income students. The plaintiffs claim DISD is providing lower-quality academic programs, equipment, facilities, and materials at schools located in minority areas, particularly in predominately black communities. “They have neglected the black community,” said Shirley Daniels, a member of the Black Coalition to Maximize Education, one of the plaintiffs. Other plaintiffs include DISD students and parents and a former district employee. The suit comes some five years after a federal district court lifted a 33 year-old desegregation order that DISD had been operating under. The district freed the school district from the order after determining that the remnants of past discrimination in DISD had been eliminated. One plaintiff, John Williams, is a former DISD employee who worked on the 1992 bond program. Mr. Williams contends in the suit that DISD retaliated against him for complaining often that the district was diverting bond funds from black neighborhoods to other DISD schools.
Source: Dallas Morning News, 7/23/08, By Tawnell D. Hobbs
[Editor’s Note: In 2006, a Texas federal district court ruled that the principal of a DISD elementary school unconstitutionally and intentionally segregated Hispanic and African-American students from white students. However, the court concluded that the principal was not liable under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. The court also ruled that DISD, school board members, and other DISD officials were not liable. For a summary of the decision, see below.]
NSBA School Law pages on Santamaria v. Dallas Indep. Sch. Dist.