BERKELEY, CA – Alameda Superior Court Judge James Richman ruled late yesterday in Avila v. Berkeley Unified School District that the school district’s plan to preserve ethnically and racially integrated schools does not violate Proposition 209, the 1996 initiative that banned the use of racial preferences in government, public education and employment.

“Although Proposition 209 specifically applies to public education, its text does not mention voluntary desegregation plans or otherwise indicate that prohibited discrimination or preferential treatment includes a race-conscious school assignment plan that seeks to provide all students with the same benefit of desegregated schools,” Judge Richman stated.

Last August, a Berkeley parent sued the school district, claiming that the Berkeley school plan violated Proposition 209. The Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative legal foundation, represented the parent.

On April 1, Judge Richman granted the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), ACLU of Northern California (ACLUNC), and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights’motion to intervene on behalf of the Berkeley NAACP and local parents who supported the school district’s voluntary school desegregation plan.

“This is an important decision with statewide implications-- Proposition 209 does not block critical efforts by our state’s school districts to provide a quality integrated education,” said LDF Western Regional Counsel Erica Teasley Linnick. “This decision keeps the promise of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision alive for the children of Berkeley.”

Following the landmark Brown decision in 1954, a citizens’ commission was formed and found that Berkeley suffered from severe housing segregation that led to racial isolation in the schools. In 1968, the school district became the first in the nation to voluntarily integrate its schools. In 1995, the School District adopted a comprehensive plan to preserve integration in its schools in light of the continued residential segregation in Berkeley.

“The judge got it exactly right,” said Alan Schlosser, Legal Director of ACLUNC. “Proposition 209 does not prevent school districts from adopting student assignment plans that promote integration, and does not change the state constitutional obligation of school districts to take steps to prevent the harms caused by racial segregation. The Berkeley School District and the Berkeley community should be applauded for not knuckling under to this misguided lawsuit.”

“This is a victory for my children,” said Roia Ferrazares, a parent intervener in the case. “When our children learn together, we are filled with hope for a better world. I am very happy that the State of California has acknowledged that it is our moral imperative to integrate."

Added Michael Harris, Assistant Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, “This decision confirms that school districts can use race to voluntarily desegregate our schools. Given that so many of our cities and other areas of California have significant residential segregation, school districts need to use race to battle resegregation.”

Plaintiffs are expected to appeal the decision.