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ACLU files class action suit against California over schools

May 17, 2000
Web posted at: 11:26 p.m. EDT (0326 GMT)

In this story: 'No child has to learn among cockroaches' Four decades after Brown vs. Board of Education Governor makes billion-dollar pledge RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

SAN FRANCISCO -- Charging that California has failed to provide the bare essentials for education at 18 public schools, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action lawsuit against the state on behalf of the students.

Photographs illustrating what the ACLU called the "shame of California" were displayed during a news conference Wednesday. The lawsuit charged the schools have broken air conditioning or heating systems, toilets that do not flush, no working water fountains, broken windows, leaky roofs and infestations of vermin.

"These are schools where a dead rat can sit decomposing from the beginning of the year in a gymnasium and no one removes it," said Mark Rosenbaum of the ACLU.

The legal advocacy group pointed out that California already has standards for restaurants and prisons. So the courts must force the state to create standards for schools and to enforce them.

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Other civil rights groups have joined the lawsuit.

"It is ultimately the state that must ensure no child has to learn among cockroaches, in sweltering heat, and without adequate classroom space," attorney John Affeldt of the public interest firm Public Advocates, Inc., said in a statement.

"It is the state that must ensure that no child be denied the basic textbooks and the qualified teachers they need to learn," he added.

One teacher described the shortage of materials for his classes.

"I have one class set of books for all of my five classes to share -- which means I have one book for every five students," said middle school teacher Yusef Abdul-Alim.

High school student Bichngoc Cao has an economics book, but it was published the year she was born. The information is outdated.

"Can we expect OPEC to collapse, thereby ending this energy problem?" Cao read from the book.

The groundbreaking class action lawsuit was brought on the 46th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court decision striking down public school segregation in the United States.

Schools named in the lawsuit have mostly low income, mostly minority populations. The schools also have many teachers without complete credentials. In some schools, the so-called "emergency credentialed" make up half the staff or more.

While one woman was glad her son's teacher was trained, she was also disturbed that her son did not see the teacher on a regular basis.

"Unfortunately, she's a chronic absentee," said Estrellita Castille. "She's hardly ever there; she doesn't miss days at a time, she misses weeks at a time."

One eighth-grade student described what it was like when substitute teachers were in control of the classroom.

"Some of my teachers don't even try to teach," said the student, identified only as Jesse. "We frequently are shown Hollywood movies during our regular classes."

Those movies he and his classmates watched included "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream".

The lawsuit charged the nation's most populous state with reneging on its constitutional guarantee to provide each of its almost 6 million public school students with the "bare essentials" necessary for an education.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin said it would take time to review the charges in the suit.

"The next logical step is for my counsel to work with the other state counsel for the defendants to develop an appropriate response," Eastin said in a brief statement.

A principal at one of the schools named in the suit admitted to some problems.

"Our school was built in 1939 and has not received any major reconstruction funds since then," said Frederick Navarro.

Gov. Gray Davis, taking office last year after years of school budget cuts prompted by the recession of the early 1990s, has made educational improvement one of the main themes of his administration.

This week Davis pledged to spend nearly $4 billion more on public schools, including a $1.84 billion discretionary funding boost for school districts aimed at bringing California per-pupil spending close to the national average and a $545 million proposal to excuse credentialed teachers from state income taxes.

Some of the students said they love their schools in spite of such problems. But they also want the tools necessary to learn and to succeed.

"Sometimes I wonder, do they think we don't want go to college because we live in the inner city?" said high school student Maria Perez.

Correspondent Anne McDermott and Reuters contributed to this report.

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ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union
U.S. Department of Education

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