ACLU plans to announce racial profiling lawsuit against police, school district

The ACLU of Southern California today plans to announce a lawsuit against Glendale police and school district officials alleging racial profiling and harassment of Latino students at Hoover High School.

In complaints filed earlier this year with, and eventually rejected by, the Glendale Unified School District, the ACLU claims 56 Hoover High students were rounded up at lunch in September 2010 and detained for up to 90 minutes in two separate classrooms. All the students were Latino or Latino in appearance, indicating clear racial profiling, according to the complaints.

The students were allegedly made to stand against a wall with their hands up while Glendale and Los Angeles police officers searched them. Some were allegedly partially disrobed and quizzed about tattoos and scars.

The Los Angeles Police and Los Angeles County Probation departments will also be named in the lawsuit, according to the ACLU.

The ACLU is scheduled to announce plans to file the lawsuit at a press conference at 3:15 p.m. in front of the Pacific Community Center in Glendale.

-- Megan O’Neil, Times Community News