BERKELEY – The Berkeley NAACP and local parents are seeking to join with the Berkeley Unified School District in support of the District’s efforts to implement the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision calling for racial integration in the public schools. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (“LDF”), the ACLU of Northern California, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights filed today a legal brief in support of their motion for intervention in Avila v. Berkeley Unified School District. The brief was filed in Alameda Superior Court.

After Brown v. Board of Education, a citizens’ commission was formed and found that Berkeley suffered from severe housing segregation that led to racial isolation in the 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. Last August, a parent, represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, sued the school district claiming that the Berkeley school plan violates Proposition 209.

A hearing is scheduled for Thursday, April 1 at 9:00 am in which the parents and the NAACP will argue for permission to intervene in the case on the side of the school district. The hearing is scheduled before Judge James Richman, Department 31, U.S. Post Office Building, 201 13th St., 2nd Floor, Oakland, California.

“On the 50th year of Brown v. Board of Education, it is a sad reality that across this country, parents and communities still must rise to defend the opportunity for children to attend quality, integrated public schools,” said Erica Teasley Linnick, LDF attorney.

“This case has statewide significance,” added Alan Schlosser, Legal Director of the ACLU of Northern California. “It is part of a concerted effort to manipulate Proposition 209 (which prohibits racial preferences) to make it impossible for school districts throughout California to achieve the promise of Brown v. Board of Education.”

Roia Ferrazares, an intervener in the case and a parent of two children who attend elementary school in Berkeley said: “There are few things more worth fighting for than my children’s future. And this issue is pivotal in securing the education they deserve and desire.” Ferrazares is currently the district-wide PTA Council President.

Michael Harris, Assistant Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, said intervention in this case is very important to preserve integrated schools in Berkeley. "If the lawsuit filed against BUSD is successful, the District could very easily return to segregated schools because the residential housing patterns of Berkeley are still segregated, particularly in the hills."