Discerning The Social Fabric Of St. Petersburg, Florida (II)

Judge expands school lawsuit

In giving the lawsuit class-action status, a judge rules Pinellas schools have failed to narrow the achievement gap for black students

By RON MATUS, Times Staff Writer Published July 2, 2004

ST. PETERSBURG - A lawsuit charging Pinellas County Schools with failing to educate black children was granted class-action status Thursday.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge James Case made the ruling in a case filed nearly four years ago on behalf of William Crowley, who is black, and his son Akwete Osoka, then a second-grader at Sawgrass Lake Elementary School.

The decision means the suit now represents all 21,000 black students in Pinellas and all black children who attend the county's public schools in the future. . . .

The suit says the district has failed to narrow a yawning achievement gap between black and white students, in violation of the equal protection clause in the state Constitution. It asks the district to craft a solution. . . .

Lawyers for the school district also have argued that the lawsuit should not be granted class-action status because the circumstances of each child's success or failure can be different. But Case rejected that argument, concluding the plaintiffs are arguing that the system has failed to meet its constitutional duty to provide a "high-quality" education to black students.

"Although individual cases reinforce the statistical data, it is the system as a whole that is being challenged, not how that system has dealt with a particular student on an individual basis," the judge wrote.

Case wrote in his order that the plaintiffs "have cited an overabundance of statistical evidence indicating that black students are achieving far below white students in every category and are receiving statistically significantly more discipline referrals than their white counter-parts."

Comments

[MoStan]

Of course, all of the people who are blaming the schools, police, and racism right now are conspicuously silent over stuff like this. Gee, I wonder why? Where was Al Sharpton and Willie Gary in this incident? I remember when this happened, "certain people" claiming to represent the black community tried to advance the notion that the white teacher had mistreated the black boy who shot him in the face; maybe even a RACIAL SLUR! When that avenue turned out to be bogus, then these people blamed the lack of gun control. Typical.

Not one of you folks have said a thing about the teacher and assistant principal that this five year old girl assaulted; how she was a danger to others and even herself; how if this girl had injured another student after revealing herself to be a problem AND her mother demanding the school not touch her child, the school system would have been sued by the parents of the child that she injured for failing to protect them from a known security risk. None of you folks who are blaming "the lack of training" and "if you can't deal with a 5 year old having a tantrum you shouldn't be a teacher" have explained exactly how YOU would have dealt with that situation, or what would happen if people took your advice and started leaving the education profession in droves because they are sick of getting assaulted by students. And yes, this was a 5 year old 40 pound girl. What if it was a 8 year old 80 pound one? An 8 year old 80 pound girl or boy with a gun, knife, or even a sharpened pencil? There was an incident in Ohio where a pregnant kindergarten teacher tried to prevent a 5 year old from repeatedly stabbing his classmate with a sharpened pencil, and the kid KICKED THE PREGNANT TEACHER IN THE STOMACH! Was the teacher OK? Was the fetus/unborn child? You don't care about them. To tell you the truth, you really don't care about Nate Brazill or even Jaiesha Scott. All you care about is railing about how America treats its blacks. All of that is true, but it doesn't excuse the behavior of Scott or her parents, and fleecing Saint Petersburg schools and police isn't going to get that little girl to change her behavior. The hilarious thing is that this case gives you the opportunity to claim that this girl is acting out because she is being oppressed in a majority white school system. But when a kid acts up in Detroit, Washington D.C., Atlanta, or Harlem, what do you blame? SEGREGATION! UNDERFUNDED SCHOOLS! UNDERPAID, OVERWORKED TEACHERS! Why? Because then you are duty bound to defend the black teachers, administrators, and politicians and "blame the system." But when it is white teachers and administrators, they are just a bunch of racists and the child was obviously just acting out against racism. Please.

[John]

Well said MoStan !