SAN FRANCISCO - A class action lawsuit on behalf of Native American middle schoolers will move forward as a result of a federal judge’s rejection of the school district’s motion to have the suit dismissed.  The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC), charges that the Del Norte County Unified School District discriminated against Native American students on the basis of race when it decided to close grades 6-8 of Margaret Keating School in Klamath, California.

Located on the Yurok Reservation, Margaret Keating is the only school that provides instruction in the Yurok language and skills central to the survival of Yurok culture, and the only school in the district where a majority of the students are Native American.

The closure has meant that the students, most of whom live on the reservation, must be bused approximately three hours per day, round-trip, to another school. 

“The district had several choices that were better and fairer – options that would have saved more money, prevented the need to bus students far from home, and not had a such a negative impact on Native American students,” said ACLU-NC attorney Jory Steele, who argued the motion in Federal Court last week.  “Instead, they chose an option that was discriminatory.”

Although the decision was ostensibly motivated by the need to cut costs, the school board ignored the recommendation of its own Facilities Committee that closure of other schools would save more money.

The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights investigated the district’s decision to close Margaret Keating’s middle school grades and concluded that the board had discriminated against Native American students on the basis of race. 

In addition to the case in federal court, ACLU-NC filed a new case against the school district in state court on April 21.   

“We are troubled by the continuing hardships imposed upon the students affected by the closures at Margaret Keating School,” said co-counsel Donald Brown, attorney of Covington & Burling LLP.

The lawsuits point to the school board’s failure to follow its ordinary procedures in making the decision to close grades 6-8 by failing to keep minutes of its discussions, and by not giving parents of Margaret Keating students adequate notice about the meetings at which the closure would be discussed. The lawsuits were filed after parents in the community had exhausted all other avenues of relief, including filing formal complaints with the school district and with the Office of Civil Rights.

ACLU-NC attorney Jory Steele was joined by co-counsel Donald Brown and Stephen George, both of Covington & Burling LLP, in arguing before Judge Thelton Henderson on April 14 that the district is in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.   

Judge Henderson, in an April 18 decision, rejected the District’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit.

The lawsuits ask the courts to require the district to reopen the school.