Quarles v. Oxford Mun. Separate School Dist., 88-4469
| Citation | 868 F.2d 750 |
| Decision Date | 27 March 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 88-4469,88-4469 |
| Parties | , 52 Ed. Law Rep. 38 Robert Earl QUARLES, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, Cross-Appellees, v. OXFORD MUNICIPAL SEPARATE SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al., Defendants-Appellees, Cross- Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Alvin O. Chambliss, Jr., Leonard McClellan, Oxford, Miss., for plaintiffs-appellants, cross-appellees.
H. Scot Spragins, Sumners, Hickman & Rayburn, Will A. Hickman, Oxford, Miss., for defendants-appellees, cross-appellants.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
Before REAVLEY, WILLIAMS and JONES, Circuit Judges.
Appellants, the class of black parents and students of the Oxford, Mississippi community, appeal from the district court's judgment which dissolved all injunctive orders entered against the Oxford Municipal Separate School District ("Oxford") and dismissed the nineteen year old school desegregation suit. They argue on appeal that the district court erred not only in dissolving the existing injunctive orders, but also in refusing to grant additional injunctive relief. We affirm, but vacate that portion of the judgment dealing with court costs.
This school desegregation case began in July 1969 when appellants complained that schools in Oxford, Mississippi had not desegregated effectively. Oxford's board of trustees took immediate steps to remedy the situation and in January 1970 submitted a desegregation plan to the district court. By order dated January 8, 1970, and with the consent of appellants, the court adopted Oxford's plan in large part, thereby commanding Oxford to "begin immediately to operate a unitary school system." The district court retained jurisdiction to ensure proper implementation of its order and, in addition, required periodic reporting.
In the years since this order was entered, there has been only one issue raised dealing directly with desegregation. In 1972, appellants requested that the district court order Oxford to provide free busing for students. After a fully litigated hearing on the issue, the district court denied appellants' request. In so doing, the court noted that
[s]tudent activities and functions, administration, staff and all classrooms are and have been since February 1970 fully integrated; one-race schools have been altogether eliminated and are a thing of the past.
* * *
* * * Oxford does not have a history of resistance to court integration orders or for devising assignment plans that promise much but achieve little. On the contrary, as a result of a single order entered by this court, the school district did away with every vestige of the dual school system, and it did so within no more than two weeks' time. The evidence unmistakably shows that Oxford was successful to an astonishing degree in putting an instant end to its de jure dual schools and fully realizing unitary schools.... [A]s conceded by plaintiffs' counsel, there has been from the start a truly unitary system whereby each school enjoys full and effective desegregation.
Quarles v. Oxford Municipal Separate School Dist., 366 F.Supp. 247, 248, 251 (N.D.Miss.1972), aff'd, 487 F.2d 824 (5th Cir.1973). Since the busing issue was addressed in 1972, appellants have filed five complaints against the Oxford school system. The complaints have involved, for the most part, school disciplinary matters; only one was pursued and finally adjudicated in appellants' favor.
In 1982, a complaint was filed against Oxford with the Office of Civil Rights ("OCR") for alleged violations of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000d et seq. Following an investigation, the OCR made recommendations in areas in which it felt complaint was justified, which Oxford followed. The OCR has conducted no further investigation.
In June 1987, Oxford filed a motion to modify the 1970 desegregation order. According to the terms of that original order, Oxford was to use four buildings in the instruction of students; each building housed three of Oxford's twelve grades. In its motion, Oxford asserted that, due to increased enrollment and the mandatory addition of a kindergarten grade level, it was necessary to redistribute the students, by grade level, among the existing facilities. Under the proposed plan, Oxford Junior High, which previously had housed students in the seventh through the ninth grades, would be converted to a middle school, that is, it would house students in the sixth through the eighth grades, and the ninth grade would become part of the high school. Appellants, who opposed this aspect of the plan, filed the instant lawsuit seeking supplemental relief or, in the alternative, to have Oxford held in contempt. After a hearing, the court granted Oxford's motion but promised to hear appellants' motion for supplemental relief at a later date.
Because appellants' motion raised many of the issues which a court considers in determining whether a school district has achieved unitary status and thus is entitled to operate free from court supervision, Oxford's school board (its black as well as its white members) decided that this would be an appropriate time to move to dismiss the longstanding desegregation order. Thereafter, the parties engaged in discovery relating to both appellants' and Oxford's motions. The district court held a hearing on these issues on May 2 and 3, 1988, and then issued findings of fact and conclusions of law, holding that Oxford had achieved unitary status and was entitled to a dismissal of the action. The court refused appellants' request for attorney's fees and taxed Oxford with costs. This appeal and cross appeal were then filed.
Because of the potential consequences, we have required district courts to follow certain procedures before declaring a school system unitary. The court must require school boards to submit reports to the court for at least three years. At the end of that period, the court may properly dismiss the action after the plaintiffs are given notice and an opportunity to show cause why continued judicial supervision is necessary. See United States v. Lawrence County School Dist., 799 F.2d 1031, 1037-38 (5th Cir.1986); Youngblood v. Board of Public Instruction, 448 F.2d 770, 771 (5th Cir.1971).
Appellants assert that they were not afforded adequate notice and a fair opportunity to litigate the unitary status issue since they believed that the May 2 hearing was being held for the sole purpose of considering their motion for supplemental relief. It is undisputed that the district court originally refused Oxford's request to combine the motion to vacate the desegregation order with the plaintiffs' motion and that the district court announced its intent to consider the motions together for the first time at the commencement of the hearing on May 2 (1988). However, we cannot conclude that appellants have a legitimate complaint here.
When the district court announced that it would grant Oxford's motion to dismiss the order unless appellants showed either that Oxford had failed to comply with the court's order or that supplemental relief was in order, counsel for appellants neither objected nor moved for a continuance on the ground that he was unprepared to address that issue. In fact, it does not appear that he could have raised such an objection. Appellants themselves arguably put Oxford's unitary status in issue by charging in their complaint that "the Oxford school system [sic] unitary status is being threatened and resegregation is rapidly taking place" and that Oxford's actions "violate[ ] movants' Fourteenth Amendment rights to a unitary system free from discrimination and the rights of all black children in the school system." Appellants' own motion dealt in some way with five of the six factors the Supreme Court has specified for consideration in determining whether a school system has achieved unitary status: faculty; staff; extracurricular activities; facilities; and composition of student body. See Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430, 435, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 1693, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968). The sixth factor, transportation, was not subject to controversy.
Appellants clearly had adequate time in which to prepare their case opposing Oxford's motion. Appellants filed their motion for supplemental relief in June 1987; Oxford filed its motion to dismiss in September 1987. Comprehensive discovery requests then were propounded by both parties relating to the claims presented in both motions. The hearing was not held until May 1988. Given these circumstances, we hold that appellants had ample notice and opportunity to prepare and litigate the issue of Oxford's unitary status.
Appellants contend that the district court erred in concluding that Oxford had achieved unitary status. 1 They maintain that "state-imposed segregation" still exists in four areas of school operation: (1) achievement grouping; (2) discipline; (3) employment; and (4) one-race programs and extracurricular activities. The district court's findings on these issues will not be set aside unless they are clearly erroneous. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a); Castaneda v. Pickard, 781 F.2d 456, 460 (5th Cir.1986).
Appellants argue that Oxford's grouping system discriminates against black students on the basis of race in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and state law. 2
Achievement or ability grouping has been recognized by both courts and educators as an acceptable and commonly used instruction method. See Castaneda v Pickard, 648 F.2d 989, 996 (5th Cir.1981); Morales v. Shannon, 516 F.2d 411, 413-14 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1034, 96 S.Ct. 566, 46 L.Ed.2d 408 (1975). Still, plaintiffs may challenge the school district's assignment practices by...
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