There’s an American school district that allows white students to transfer in, but bans black students, and that’s a practice that needs to be eliminated, according to a legal team from the Pacific Legal Foundation which is taking the case to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
A lower court judge had dismissed the case because of technical issues he cited, but foundation officials say the situation is so egregious it need to be pursued – and fixed.
It’s happening in the St. Louis area, where K-12 transfers are all right into St. Louis if the students are white.
Not if they’re black.
PLF attorneys represent La’Shieka White, whose nine-year-old son, Edmund, is being barred from attending the school of his choice – simply because he is black.
“We are determined to press forward with this important civil rights case, potentially all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary,” said PLF Principal Attorney Joshua P. Thompson. “We believe the trial court was clearly wrong on the law. Just as important, we are clearly right on the underlying principles of justice and equal opportunity that are at stake. No school official can be allowed to deny transfers or school-choice opportunities based simply on a student’s skin color.”
White said, “We are going to keep going in this lawsuit, we have to keep going, because this case is so important for everyone’s rights. Nobody should have to explain to their child that they can’t go to their school of choice because of their color.”
WND reported earlier when the case was filed that the student, E.L., was attending Gateway Science Academy at a time when he was living inside St. Louis.
But to escape to a home with less crime around, the family moved to the suburb 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 Thompson when the filing was made.
“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 action is against the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corp., a desegregation era remnant that still controls cross-district school enrollment and bans black students from the suburbs from 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.
A video introduction to the case:
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PLF explained the limits were adopted decades ago as part of a consent decree governing the court-ordered integration of St. Louis-area schools.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/07/30/school-district-bans-black-student-transfers/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/07/30/school-district-bans-black-student-transfers/
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