School Will Build Ramp for Girl, 4, in Wheelchair

The Los Angeles Unified School District agreed on Friday to build a ramp so that a wheelchair-bound preschooler who sued the district can attend a program at her neighborhood school in Highland Park.

The larger issue of whether all schools in the district must be equipped to accommodate disabled students was tabled when attorneys for the girl, Xochitl Soto, dropped a class-action lawsuit in exchange for an immediate settlement for the spunky 4-year-old.

“We got a total win for Xochitl,” said one of her attorneys, Paul Miller, of the Western Law Center for the Handicapped.

Xochitl was paralyzed by a stray gang bullet when she was 10 months old. The articulate preschooler last week told reporters she wanted to go to the school with her brother, Moses, a first grader, and with all the other children she knows.

On Friday, Xochitl raced down the corridors of the U.S. District Courthouse in her wheelchair, but was not in the mood for an interview. She did say she planned to wear her best blue dress and Barbie-doll heart necklace on Monday when she arrives at Bushnell School at noon for the two-hour preschool program.

Four steps stand in her way, however, so a temporary ramp will be installed until a permanent one can be built in about two weeks for $10,000. Under the terms of the settlement, Xochitl can attend the school this year. At the end of the year, the district will reevaluate the situation, and if there are no problems the arrangement will continue.

School district attorney Howard Friedman said he has not changed his view that the district is not legally required to provide space for the disabled at each school.

A 12-year-old study had estimated it would cost $350 million to make all district rooms available to the handicapped. Excluding new construction, $11 million has been spent so far on such alterations, according to court documents.

Friedman said a major concern in settling the case without determining the legal issues is the prospect of a flurry of similar requests from parents of disabled children. He said a decision was made to “err on the side of taking care of Xochitl.”

Besides, the attorney admitted, “I wouldn’t have liked to go to war against a vivacious 4-year-old.”