State Bid to Put Safety Burden on Schools Rebuffed

A Sacramento judge has delivered a blow to a state legal effort to hold individual school districts responsible for inadequate health and safety conditions alleged in a civil rights lawsuit filed last May.

Superior Court Judge Peter Busch ruled that a state cross-complaint will not be taken up until after the civil rights suit against the state is decided.

A trial date is expected to be set for later this year or early next year.

“It will be a showcase trial for the state of California, particularly for poor children and children of color,” said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, one of a group of civil rights organizations that filed the case.

“It will be the first trial in the country that will put on a demonstration that children--hundreds of thousands--lack textbooks, qualified teachers, seats in classrooms, functioning toilets, basic safe facilities.”

The class-action suit was filed on behalf of students at 18 schools throughout the state. It alleged that they and thousands of other predominantly poor and minority students attend schools that fail to meet “minimal educational standards.”

The lawsuit is designed to force the state to ensure that every district meets those standards.

In its cross-complaint, the state alleged that the 18 school districts, not the state Department of Education, were responsible for maintaining school facilities.

“I think the cross-complaint was just a ruse, an attempt to delay the case and to pass the buck,” Rosenbaum said.