Pennsylvania Parents Sue Lower Merion School District For Wrongly Classifying Children As Special Needs Students

More than three years ago, parents and students in suburban Philadelphia filed suit against their school district for classifying black children as special education students improperly. Finally, a trial for Blunt et al v. Lower Merion School District has been set.

In July 2007, eight black families filed a class action lawsuit in federal court and claimed the district had failed to provide a proper education to their children.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer:

[The lawsuit was filed] on behalf of "all present and future African American students" in the district who, "because of defendants' acts and omissions...are denied access to the general education curriculum; are placed in below-grade-level classes; receive a modified curriculum; and/or are sent to separate, segregated schools which provides them with an education inferior to that provided their Caucasian peers."

A judge ruled in 2009 that each student's case was too individualized to be filed as a class-action suit. And when Concerned Black Parents Inc. and the NAACP Main Line Branch joined the plaintiffs' efforts, he argued the groups lacked legal standing to join the suit.

Jennifer R. Clarke, executive director of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, argued to The Inquirer Monday that though the cases are individualized, the district must adopt a better strategy for minority achievement.

Clarke said:

"We want to establish a more objective method of identifying children for special education and also a different way in which children are being tracked into different courses...particularly so early on and particularly in math but also in other courses."

Main Line Times, a local new source for Lower Merion residents, reported Monday that lawyers from the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia are handling the case.

Sonja Kerr, director of the organization's Disabilities Rights Project, said in a statement:

"The district is essentially wrongly using its special-education programs to resegregate their schools...Teachers and other staff often have unfairly low expectations for minority students, and they also often misperceive cultural differences as disabilities. What we hear from families is that this has been going on for generations. Those attitudes and misunderstandings lead directly to the racial disparity you see in Lower Merion schools. LMSD has definitely been aware of this problem since 1997 when it first created committees to address the problem, but the system has not improved."

The school district said in a statement released Monday that it has taken steps to address the achievement gap between minority and white students.

According to The Inquirer:

[The district has] acknowledged...historical concerns surrounding minority achievement and supports." So, "the district has aggressively sought to take a leadership role in the effort to address minority achievement in the areas of educational programming, hiring, community engagement, and staff development.

The trial is set for Nov. 1, 2011. Read more about the case at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Comments

[SkreetGil1]

02:11 AM on 01/09/2011

My niece is mixed. Irish/African American. Her elementary school tried to do that stuff to her when she was little. And when my sister showed up at the office and made it know that this kind of action is wrong, unacceptable and just not going to happen on our watch, they got the message.

So I really support these parents to continue to fight, because that is the good fight the right fight! This is unacceptable. And just plain horrid. How can this still be happening!

By the way, my niece graduated from college with a double major in Math & Chemistry, magna cum laude (meaning "with great honor")

So they were proven wrong with great honor. Please continue to prove them wrong.

[bkrider9]

08:08 AM on 01/09/2011

Big fan. Thanks for this testimony.

[Taylor Becton]

12:43 AM on 01/09/2011

I strongly disagree with the statement saying that all African American students should be placed in "special-education", because I am also an African American student in high school. I think the reason why people think this because slavery we weren't able to get a education because the Caucasian ethnic group wouldn't allow us to. More African Americans have accomplished more things in history than some Caucasians, some names for examples; Martin Luther King Jr, Madam Cj Walker, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and Josephine Baker. Those people have made it far in society, and have inspired young people today. And by trying to put all African American students in "special-education" classes this pushes them back in society. I agree with the Declaration of Independence that "All men are created equal", by Thomas Jefferson, not just men women too, and if every man is created equal why still try and push the African American race back.?

[recolo]

11:27 PM on 01/08/2011

And who really wins and loses with lawsuits like this? This is public education – not private industry. The attorneys have nothing to lose, and lots of money to win. The schools have nothing to win by supporting wrongful practice. Delivering special education services is expensive and labor intensive. And if parents can sue a public school district if their child does not get into college or does not get into the college of their choice, then public education is in trouble. Families of students attending school in the district have everything to lose by long drawn-out expensive court proceedings. I am mistrustful of attorneys pulling teachers out of their classrooms and away from students to defend themselves.

I find myself back to my opening statement: It will be up to the court to decide. And if there is evidence of intentional wrongful practice, I hope they find it. But I fear, no I know, it is just not that simple. And I fear that a wrongful suit will hurt more students than it will help.

[bkrider9]

08:10 AM on 01/09/2011

Did you notice that you don't have a clue what you are talking about?

[recolo]

11:27 PM on 01/08/2011

As to the second charge that students were placed without parent consent in low-level classes with sub-par teaching –it doesn’t seem likely considering the regulations and rigorous compliance requirements of special education under IDEA. For example, in order to teach a math class to identified students, the teacher must be certified in special education and math. Special education certification is rigorous, and those with that certification are experts in teaching children who struggle to learn due to their disabilities. In addition, the article failed to include the district’s response: "no students have been placed in special education that were not found eligible to receive services and whose parents did not approve in writing that the services be provided." While no child likes to be labeled with a disability, how many children have benefited from the intensive services that special education provides? How many children who need these services would suffer if school districts become afraid or are prevented from providing specially designed instruction to those who learn differently, or more slowly? Many of these children need small classrooms and intensive instruction in order to receive the Free and Appropriate Public Education guaranteed under the law. Receiving special education services can be a gift to a child that needs it: a gift and a right that is not shared by children around the world.

[Andrea Sofancy Wade]

02:12 PM on 01/08/2011

Well me myself as a African American high school student strongly disagree! If putting Blacks as "special-education", then tell me what do you put Whites, Mexicans, Indains, ect. as.? By saying Blacks should be in "special-education " how are you trying to make your self look? I feel that this is just another way to make it harder for blacks to come up in society. Setting blacks in "special-education " is also setting them back from a mind Challenge. In high school you are placed in classes that Challenge your mind, to set your thinking higher. But by putting all Blacks in " special-education " even the really smart ones, what type of Challenge are you giving them. Thats just telling them they are not going to make it very far. I wonder are they thinking that blacks should be in "special-education" because of our background from way back, or is it because they just dont wont blacks at there school to be set higher then a white kid. I just dont understand why would they say blacks should be put in "special-education" when we make a difference in the world just as much as Whites.

[bkrider9]

08:29 AM on 01/07/2011

To all the racists on this thread, you know who you are - and may I say, you look mahvelous. 

Good luck to you, because your days are numbered. LOL. The world is globalizing and there's not much you can do about it, is there? Every way you turn now you will find people of color making a way for themselves.

Putting people of color down is not going to raise you up. Ever think about that? And finally, if you're upset about who's in the White House now, don't worry. There's plenty where those excellent people came from. Africans in the US are the most highly educated group of all immigrants. Indians dominate the software engineering sector. Asians in general are prominent in the medical field. What's a traditional racist to do? My advice: give up your old-fashioned racist beliefs. You'll feel much better for it.

And don't be upset if your children refuse to join you in your racist beliefs. All bad things have to go some time. Look at the fact that women were once considered to be inferior creatures; now they earn the majority of scholarships and the best grades in all the top universities. See how easy it is?

[GlennWatson]

08:48 AM on 01/07/2011

Thanks for the sermon reverend. Now stop preaching and look at some facts. Black and Hispanic students are not doing so well in the USA. You can blame others all you like and that does not change the facts.

[bkrider9]

08:52 AM on 01/07/2011

LOL

You look mahvelous. Don't be so upset. Nobody is hating you. Relax. Don't worry. Be happy!

[Busterman]

02:17 AM on 01/07/2011

Do Cultural differences mean crappy at math is acceptable?

[DanoX]

11:24 PM on 01/06/2011

I'm guessing here, but I bet the school district also recieved extra Federal dollars for having more "special needs" kids, and said money was promptly spent elsewhere, probably the football team.

[GlennWatson]

08:50 AM on 01/07/2011

That would be a ridiculous guess. Believe me when I say the money received for special ed kids is not worth the hassle unless the kid is profoundly handicapped.

[GlennWatson]

10:42 PM on 01/06/2011

What?

Heresy!

You want to make parents responsible? Get with the program sir!

[yetiwatcher]

10:52 PM on 01/06/2011

*foul

[KDMac]

02:39 PM on 01/06/2011

I think educators in general want to take square pegs and put them into round holes, and drugs are supposed to keep the kids in line somehow. The problem is with a system that rewards people (via SSI) for having kids diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, so you get the check, but don't want the "special" label that comes with it.

Our son was diagnosed with RAD, but we were adamant that he not be classified as "disabled" because we didn't want him to think he wasn't able to be a productive citizen when he got older. Yes, there is extra work involved, but that's part of being a parent.

[yetiwatcher]

10:56 PM on 01/06/2011

what has that to do with the situation under consideration?
if I read the article correctly, we are talking about intentional racial segregation of the school, enabled and hidden behind the special ed programs, going back to at least 1997

[tinman1967]

01:29 PM on 01/06/2011

What a waste of money.

[poeticjustice4all]

02:00 PM on 01/06/2011

And lives.

[lisakaz2]

09:57 PM on 01/05/2011

Seems to me the parents are describing a process, not something individual -- and that individual differences are really part of the plantiff's case. I hope the parents found a way around this, since justice is pretty slow here and the kids can't wait.

[southernfried]

09:08 PM on 01/05/2011

smh

[bkrider9]

09:00 PM on 01/05/2011

Racism is like a fundamentalist religion. There's not much you can do to convince people to leave that cult.

[a okafor007]

09:30 AM on 01/06/2011

Or Have them realize that they are racist to begin with

[DanoX]

11:31 PM on 01/06/2011

So true!! My own mother will swear until she is blue in the face that she is not a racist. Even though she spouts something obscenely racist at least once a week. When I call her out on it, she says it's not racist and quickly changes the subject and refuses to discuss it any further.

[AmericanLeslie]

10:09 AM on 01/07/2011

True...and this is one of the MANY examples of how racists have managed to perpetuate their commitment to separate but unequal education opportunities ever since the Supreme Court's Brown vs. The Topeka Board of Education ruling in 1954. Anyone who thinks Jim Crow is dead and was only in the South is incredibly uninformed and naive.

Wish I could re-fan you. Happy New Year!

[bkrider9]

10:29 AM on 01/07/2011

Well said. And Happy New Year to you!

[eric14]

08:03 PM on 01/05/2011

'' More than three years ago, parents and students in suburban Philadelphia filed suit against their school district for classifying black children as special education students improperly. ''
----------------------------------------------
Leaving ''improperly'' to the end of above sentence is both grammatically weak (it is an adverb qualifying the verb ''classifying'') and inflammatory as the reader is at first given the idea of a general classification of black children as special education students.

Compare with:-

More than three years ago, parents and students in suburban Philadelphia filed suit against their school district for improperly classifying some black children as special education students.

The introduction of the adjective ''some'' also takes us away from the fuzzy underlying idea that there is a racist policy here classifying all black children as special education students.

[poeticjustice4all]

01:59 PM on 01/06/2011

There is nothing fuzzy about racism, Eric. It is not an "underlying idea." Racism IS the point. Labeling poor children and children of color, removing those particular kids from general classrooms and then tracking them into special ed. classes is the point.

Did you think that by grading the grammar in this article like a fussy school marm you could justify or somehow excuse away the well-documented nightmare of cultural disproportionality in our schools? Did you think this was a grammar exercise?

How about this?

For decades, cultural disproportionality has ruined lives and wrecked communities. Eric, the issue isn't grammar. This is a civil rights issue.

[eric14]

02:11 PM on 01/06/2011

'' What we hear from families is that this has been going on for generations.''
---------------------------------------
And,how is it, that this form of institutional racism has continued for so long?

[GlennWatson]

06:58 PM on 01/06/2011

Its not a civil rights issue. The school systems with black mayors and black superintendents and Black teachers in a country with a Black president are doing the worst.