North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System denied Spanish-speaking parents the opportunity to participate in their children’s education. The school system provided school notices, such as notices of long-term suspensions and special education materials, in English to English-speaking parents but failed to provide this information to Spanish-speaking parents in Spanish – discriminating against these students and violating state and federal law. The Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Children’s Services, a project of Legal Aid of North Carolina, filed a complaint against the school district with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. This complaint resulted in the school district agreeing to develop a plan to ensure Spanish-speaking parents have the opportunity to participate in their child’s education.
In Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish Public School System, African-American students face a harsh reality. Typical teenage misbehavior, such as horseplay or cursing, doesn’t result in a trip to the principal’s office. Instead, these students are shipped off to alternative schools where they often languish for months, even years.
A federal judge has approved a settlement agreement between the Southern Poverty Law Center and the public school system in Jackson, Miss., to reform discipline policies across the district and to end the brutal practice of handcuffing students to railings and poles for hours at a time as punishment for minor rule violations.
African-American students and students with disabilities in Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish Public Schools were disproportionately referred to alternative school, where they often languish for months or even years before returning to regular classes. These students often were referred to alternative schools for minor misconduct, such as disrespectful behavior, use of profanity, disrupting class and horseplay.
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education today that describes how discriminatory policies of the Jefferson Parish Public School System in Louisiana have pushed a disproportionate number of black students and students with disabilities into alternative schools, where they often languish for months or even years before returning to school.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Children’s Services today demanded that North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System stop discriminating against Latino students with Spanish-speaking parents or the groups will file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
Last spring, Florida lawmakers passed Senate Bill 2112, which allows counties to place children charged as juveniles in adult jails.
This is a cautionary tale that raises alarming questions about the treatment of youthful, mostly nonviolent offenders in Mississippi and elsewhere. And it calls into question the wisdom of turning over the care of these youths, some as young as 13, to private companies that exist solely to turn a profit.
Earlier this year, the Southern Poverty Law Center achieved a major milestone in its campaign to stop the rampant bullying and violence faced by LGBT students, and those students perceived to be LGBT, in school.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and community members urged county leaders at Florida's Hillsborough County Juvenile Justice Task Force meeting today not to adopt juvenile detention policies similar to those of Polk County, where an SPLC lawsuit has been filed against the sheriff who houses children charged as juveniles in an adult jail.
