Constitutional Law

Calif. parents sue school district over charter effort

By By The Associated Press

COMPTON, Calif. ? Six parents and their children sued the Compton Unified School District yesterday, alleging officials are trying to thwart their push to convert a failing elementary school to a charter school.

The parents immediately won a temporary injunction from Superior Court Judge Robert O'Brien, who blocked the district from using a complex process to verify signatures on a petition for the charter school.

"This is the first step in what will be a long battle to get these children their basic right to education," said attorney Mark Holscher, who is representing the parents without charge.

In a statement, the district said it was confident the judge would allow the verification process to proceed after hearing the district's legal arguments at a hearing scheduled for Feb. 24.

The lawsuit was sparked by the district's move to verify signatures on a petition submitted by 61% of parents at McKinley Elementary School in December, stating they want the school to be turned over to independent charter operator Celerity Education Group next school year. That move would likely result in current teachers and administrators losing their jobs.

Compton Unified, one of the lowest performing districts in the state, has rejected six applications from charter schools in the past four years.

The district told parents who signed the petition to come to the school at a specified time with a photo ID and submit to an unspecified signature-verification process, according to the lawsuit. Officials said signatures of parents who didn't show up would be crossed off the petition.

Oralia Velasquez, a parent-plaintiff in the lawsuit, said she felt disrespected. The district has created "a process that prevents all parents from expressing their opinion," she said. "That's not right."

The lawsuit called the petition process "burdensome and intrusive" with no precedent. It is also designed to intimidate parents who may be illegal immigrants, the suit added.

"The district has made it more difficult to petition a local school for education reform than it is to vote for the president of the United States," the lawsuit states.

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on February 03, 2011 (boomark / email).