This class-action lawsuit charges that school officials in Monroe County, Alabama subject African American students at Monroeville Junior High School to the widespread use of racial epithets and slurs, racially-motivated discipline, and racially segregated classrooms.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alabama have
filed a complaint in a class-action lawsuit charging Monroe County
school officials with subjecting African American students at Monroeville Junior
High School to the widespread use of racial epithets and slurs,
racially-motivated discipline, and racially segregated classrooms, practices
that deny African American students their constitutional right to equal
educational opportunities.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of
Alabama on behalf of nine parents of Monroeville Junior High School (MJHS)
students, names as defendants the members of the Monroe County Board of
Education, the superintendent of the Monroe County School District and the
principal of MJHS. The ACLU and ACLU of Alabama ask the court to certify as a
class all African American students who attended MJHS last year, who attend
currently, and who will attend the school in the future, as well as their
parents and guardians.
Some of the most egregious allegations in the lawsuit document the use of
racial epithets and slurs made by teachers and school officials toward African
American students. School officials refer to African American students as
"niggers" and "filthy trash," and they have told African American parents that
they would not be permitted to run the school "like a bunch of animals."
African American children are routinely suspended for multiple days at a time
for not having their shirts tucked in properly, for not wearing a belt, for
wearing the wrong kind of belt, for wearing the wrong color undershirt, or
simply because a school official does not like the way they are dressed.
Caucasian children who commit these same alleged infractions go unpunished.
African American children are routinely subject to corporal punishment for
infractions as minor as running in the hallways or talking in class. According
to parents, white children are virtually never subject to corporal punishment.
The complaint further alleges that school officials retaliate against parents
who object to the racially discriminatory treatment of their children. Children
whose parents complain are singled out for more punishment, and parents who
express their concerns about the use of discipline on their child are banned
from the school grounds and threatened with arrest. Even worse, when these same parents seek assistance from the district's Board
of Education, the school board refuses to permit these parents from airing their
complaints. The Board of Education prohibits any public speaking related to
racial discrimination at its board meetings, a denial of parents' free speech
rights. According to numerous parents of African American students, racially
discriminatory practices at MJHS have resulted in their children no longer
wanting to go to school and have forced them to lose dozens of days of classroom
instruction per year because of discriminatory suspensions. Students who once
were honor students are now failing multiple classes and many are prohibited
from extracurricular activities as a result.
PRESS:
Fox 10 Mobile, ACLU Files Suit Against Monroe County Schools (5/21/08)
Associated Press, Parents File Discrimination Suit Against Monroe County Schools (5/21/08)
WKRG-CBS News, Racial Lawsuit Filed Against Monroe County School Officials (5/21/08)
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