Challenge to Capistrano School Integration Efforts Blocked
The Capistrano Unified School District's policy permitting race as a factor when drawing attendance boundaries is constitutional, an Orange County Superior Court judge has ruled.
The August decision is a blow to the latest attempt to hobble integration efforts in California's public schools and expand the meaning of Proposition 209, the 1996 initiative that amended the state Constitution prohibiting discrimination or granting of preferences on the basis of race.
"We are delighted that the Court reaffirmed the importance of integration in public schools and held that some uses of race are indeed constitutional under the California Constitution," said Catherine Lhamon, racial justice director for the ACLU of Southern California. "This decision sends a strong message to school districts throughout the state that they should continue efforts to integrate their schools in ways that satisfy the law."
In June 2005, a newly formed organization named Neighborhood Schools For Our Kids filed a lawsuit alleging that the school district violated California law by considering the avoidance of "racially, ethnically, and socio-economically identifiable schools" as one of nine factors in its decision-making process for the school district's new attendance boundaries.
The ACLU/SC, along with other organizations, stepped in to assist parents of district students in asking the judge to reject the anti-integration lawsuit in its entirety.
