Recent Cases

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• Gillman v. Sch. Bd. for Holmes County, Fla., No. 08-34 (N.D. Fla. July 24, 2008) [HTML 6,195kb]
  A U.S. district court in Florida has ruled that a high school principal’s decision, later ratified by the school board, to prohibit students from displaying messages or wearing symbols advocating acceptance of gay people violated the students’ First Amendment right to free speech.
  
• Samnorwood Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Texas Educ. Agency, No. 06-41347 (Jun. 24, 2008) [HTML 4,070kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (LA, MS, TX) has ruled that a federal court desegregation order is not applicable to two Texas school districts that, having voluntarily and completely desegregated by vote of their respective school boards prior to the desegregation suit being filed, were not parties to the suit and never under a desegregation order.
  
• Morrison v. Bd. of Educ. of Boyd County, No. 06-5380, Nos. 06-5406/5407 (6th Cir. Apr. 9, 2008) [HTML 4,749kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (KY, MI, OH, TN) has reversed itself and ruled that a student’s free speech claim for nominal damages based on a Kentucky school district’s previous anti-harassment policy was not justiciable.
  
• P.A.C.E. v. Kansas City Mo. Sch. Dist., No. 06-3318 (Feb. 27, 2008) [HTML 3,971kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (AR, IA, MN, MO, ND, NE, SD) has struck down a Missouri law requiring the Kansas City Missouri School District (KCMSD) to use property tax revenue that was set aside to pay off court-ordered desegregation bonds to fund charter schools.
  
• Anderson v. Sch. Bd. of Madison County, No. 06-60902 (5th Cir. Feb. 11, 2008) [HTML 4,114kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (LA, MS, TX) has granted Madison County School District’s (MCSD) motion for unitary status, releasing it from a federal desegregation order it has been under since 1969.
  
• American Civil Rights Found. v. Los Angeles Unified Sch. Dist., No. BC 341363 (Dec. 10, 2007) [HTML 2,668kb]
  A California trial court has ruled that Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) consideration of race in its magnet schools admissions policy does not violate the amendment to the state constitution known as Proposition 209, which bars preferential treatment in public institutions, including schools, based on race.
  
• Jock v. Ransom, No. 05-1108 (N.D. N.Y. June 28, 2007) [HTML 3,303kb]
  A federal district court in New York has ruled that school officials did not violate the equal protection rights of Native American students by ending the practice of allowing recitation of a Mohawk thanksgiving address over the school public address system and during certain school events.
  
• Holton v. City of Thomasville Sch. Dist., No. 06-12984 (11th Cir. July 3, 2007) [HTML 1,832kb]
  fThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (AL, GA, FL) has affirmed that a school district’s program of "ability grouping" or "tracking," in which students are grouped into different academic tracks based on their abilities, does not violate minority students’ equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  
• Parents Involved in Cmty. Schools v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1, No. 05-908 [HTML 7,293kb]
  The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that student assignment plans in Jefferson County, Kentucky and Seattle, Washington that take a student’s race into consideration violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
  
• American Civil Rights Found. v. Berkeley Unified Sch. Dist., No. 06292139 (Cal. Super. Ct. Apr. 6, 2007) [HTML 4,563kb]
  A California state court has ruled that two out of three programs in Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) that take student race into account do not violate California’s Proposition 209 prohibition “on discrimination or preference on account of race.”
  
• L.W. v. Toms River Regional Schools Board of Education, No. 05-111 (N.J. Feb. 21, 2007) [HTML 6,384kb]
  In a unanimous decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that a school district was liable under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD) for student-on-student sexual harassment based on sexual orientation.
  
• Knight v. Alabama, No. 05-11527 (11th Cir. Jan. 31, 2007) [HTML 3,922kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has rejected a claim that the inadequacy of the State of Alabama’s K-12 public school funding system has a segregative effect on the state’s system of higher education because state funds intended for higher education are diverted to lower education.
  
• Santamaria v. Dallas Independent School District, No. 06-692 (N.D. Tex. Nov. 16, 2006) [HTML 5,366kb]
  A Texas federal district court has ruled that the principal of a Dallas Independent School District (DISD) elementary school unconstitutionally and intentionally segregated Hispanic and African-American students from white students.
  
• Powell v. Bunn, No. S52659 (Ore. Sept. 8, 2006) [HTML 3,019kb]
  The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that school officials did not discriminate against an atheist student when they allowed a Boy Scout representative to make a recruiting presentation in his classroom.
  
• Neighborhood Schools For Our Kids v. Capistrano Unified School District, No. 05-07288 (Cal. Super. Ct. Aug. 25, 2006) [HTML 3,141kb]
  A California state court has denied both sides’ motions for summary judgment in a challenge to a school board’s attempts to maintain racial and ethnic balance in its schools.
  
• White County High School Peers Rising In Diverse Education (PRIDE) v. White County School District, No. 06-29 (D. Ga. July 14, 2006) [HTML 4,117kb]
  A Georgia federal district court has granted a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) club a permanent injunction to prevent White County High School (WCHS) from barring the group meeting at school.
  
• Morrison v. Board of Education of Boyd County, No. 05-38 (E.D. Ky. Feb. 17, 2005) [HTML 4,016kb]
  A Kentucky federal district court has ruled that a school district's mandatory diversity training program, which was implemented as part of a settlement of an earlier lawsuit brought on behalf of students seeking to form a Gay Straight Alliance club (GSA), does not violate the free speech, equal protection, or free exercise of religion rights of students and parents who object to the training despite the fact that it calls for tolerance of homosexuality.
  
• Washington v. Pierce, No. 03-487 (Vt. Dec. 16, 2005) [HTML 4,977kb]
  The Vermont Supreme Court has ruled that a student failed to state a cause of action under Vermont's Public Accommodations Act (VPAA) for student-on-student harassment, because she failed to show that she first had exhausted the administrative remedies available to her or to demonstrate a valid reason for not having done so.