Shades of 1960!
A lawsuit has been filed against a St. Louis educational organization for refusing permission for a student to enroll in a school – because of his skin color.
Black.
“The only thing preventing E.L. from enrolling at Gateway (Science Academy) next year is his skin color. E.L. is prohibited from attending public schools in the city of St. Louis, including magnet schools and charter schools, because he is African-American.”
The charged allegations come in a lawsuit filed by La’Shieka White on behalf of her third-grade son, E.L. against the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corp., a desegregation era remnant that still controls cross-district school enrollment, and bans black students from the suburbs enrolling in St. Louis schools.
VICC officials told WND they could not comment on a specific lawsuit, but they are governed by a settlement agreement that was adopted to “address long standing school segregation issues.”
They confirmed the race basis for the program, explaining the agreement, “allows for African American students residing in the city of St. Louis to attend certain participating districts in the county and conversely to allow non-African American students in participating districts in the county to attend magnet (and charter) schools in the city with one of the primary goals being to increase the integration of the schools.”
“This particular student’s ineligibility is a straightforward application of how the program works and the rules that we must abide by,” the organization’s statement said.
The case was launched by Pacific Legal Foundation, a national public interest watchdog, on behalf of the family.
Their video introduction to the case:
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The “outrageous” restrictions were adopted, according to the PLF, “more than three decades ago as part of a consent decree governing the court-ordered integration of St. Louis-area schools. The race-based transfer restrictions are implemented under a student enrollment scheme called the St. Louis Student Transfer Program.”
The problem arose because the family until recently lived in St. Louis, where E.L. has excelled at Gateway.
But in order to escape to a home with less crime around, they moved to the suburb of Maryland Heights.
“They would like to continue enrolling Edmund in Gateway, where he has been excelling since kindergarten. However, they are barred from doing so in the coming school year, because he would have to transfer into Gateway from their new residence in the county – and the St. Louis Transfer Program would not allow him to do so, because he is African-American. The St. Louis Student Transfer program allows only non-black students living in the county to transfer to public schools in the city,” PLF reported.
The complaint alleges that violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
“It is outrageous that in this day and age, there would still be policies on the books that turn children away from the school of their choice because of the color of their skin,” said PLF Principal Attorney Joshua Thompson.
“This discrimination isn’t just unacceptable, it is flat-out unconstitutional. No matter how benign the goals of this policy might have seemed decades ago, as an instrument of desegregation, race can no longer be the driving force in determining where St. Louis-area children may go to school. There can be no excuse in the 21st century for denying any student equal opportunity without regard to race. Under our Constitution, the schools system cannot say to La’Shieka White and her son, ‘You are black, therefore, no transfer for you.’”
The mother said, “I was shocked, I was literally crying, when I learned that the guidelines would keep my son from transferring to the school he loves and where he’s doing great, and where all the teachers and administrators love him, because he is African-American. That’s not fair and that’s not what America is about.”
The PLF reported the restrictions arose in the 1970s and 1980s, when the courts ruled the St. Louis schools were segregated – and ordered that black students from St. Louis could transfer into the county, and non-black students from the county could transfer to city schools. But only those circumstances were allowed.
The program was continued even after federal jurisdiction over the segregation claims ended.
Explained the complaint, “If defendant is not enjoined from enforcing the race-based transfer rules, plaintiffs will be irreparably harmed in that E.L. will be prohibited from attending Gateway Science Academy, St. Louis city magnet schools, and St. Louis city public schools.”
The case asks the court to dissolve the restrictions as unconstitutionally invalid, and a ban on using race to discriminate.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/05/06/black-student-denied-access-to-school-over-race/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/black-student-denied-access-to-school-over-race/
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