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LA County Fails to Educate Probation Camp Youth
An alliance of legal groups today filed a ground-breaking, class-action lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Probation Department and top county education officials for their total failure to provide youth in the county’s largest juvenile probation camp with basic and appropriate education, thereby denying them the legally mandated rehabilitative program that should prepare them to reenter society and the work force.
The suit, filed in United States District Court in Los Angeles, charges that county personnel -- including administrators and teachers at the Challenger Memorial Youth Center in Lancaster -- have in some instances thrown worksheets under the door of students’ cells in lieu of classroom instruction, denied all education services when children ask for help or to use the restroom, and systematically denied students access to appropriate instruction and the required minimum school day.
"Our months-long investigation has uncovered a scandal of dimensions that would make Dickens shudder," said Mark Rosenbaum, ACLU/SC legal director.
Listen to one of the youth describe his experiences at Challenger.
