Spangler v. Pasadena City Board of Education
| Decision Date | 12 March 1970 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 68-1438-R. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Central District of California |
| Parties | Nancy Anne SPANGLER et al., Plaintiffs, and United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor, v. PASADENA CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., Defendants. |
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Edgar Paul Boyko and Michael W. Roberts, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiffs.
John N. Mitchell, Atty. Gen., Jerris Leonard, Asst. Atty. Gen., Wm. Matthew Byrne, Jr., U. S. Atty., James Stotter, II, Asst. U. S. Atty., Charles Quaintance, Atty., U. S. Dept. of Justice, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiff-intervenor.
John P. Pollock, Pollock, Palmer & Metzler, and John Andrew Miller, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendants.
FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
The Court, having heard the testimony and considered all exhibits, and having heard the argument of counsel, enters the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.
1. The evidence in this case establishes that there is racial imbalance or segregation in the student bodies and faculties of the Pasadena Unified School District at all levels, elementary schools, junior high schools, and senior high schools.
2. That imbalance is a result of defendants' failure to carry out their announced policies of integration, policies that relate both to faculty and student assignments.
3. These failures have occurred in connection with the teacher assignment, hiring, and promotion policies and practices of the District, its construction policies and practices, and its assignment of students.
4. The Court has also noted with concern the racial effects of the District's interclass grouping policies and procedures. Because of the delicate educational nature of decisions concerning grouping, the Court does not at this time deem it appropriate to enter an Order in this regard, but urges the people of Pasadena to examine carefully the grouping policies of their District.
5. Pasadena City Board of Education has used a neighborhood school policy and a policy against forced cross-town bussing to explain its failure to carry out its policies of integrating students and teachers and staff members. The neighborhood school policy is an educational consideration, but it does not normally have constitutional proportions. Under facts of which Pasadena City Board of Education has been aware since at least 1958 as they affect the District's elementary schools, it can be recognized that the use of the neighborhood school policy results in racial imbalance and increasing racial imbalance. The same is true of the policy against cross-town bussing.
1. In Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954), the Supreme Court was dealing, simply, with racial segregation. The Court made no distinction as to Northern segregation or Southern segregation. The Supreme Court held, simply, that segregated education is inherently unequal, that it deprived Negro children of the educational opportunity to fulfil all their dreams in this country. It further held that all children are deprived, in a constitutional sense, by segregation.
2. Under the facts of this case, use of a strict neighborhood school policy and a policy against cross-town bussing take on constitutional significance as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Because time is of the essence in vindicating the right of Pasadena's children to obtain equal educational opportunities, the Court will at this time enter only the findings of fact and conclusions of law set forth hereinabove. The plaintiff-intervenor may submit additional proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law on or before February 2, 1970; objections, if any, are to be filed on or before February 9, 1970.
JUDGMENTIn accordance with the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law filed herein:
It is ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the defendants, Pasadena City Board of Education, Mrs. LuVerne LaMotte, Albert C. Lowe, Bradford C. Houser, John T. Welsh, and Joseph J. Engholm, as members of the Pasadena City Board of Education, and Ralph W. Hornbeck, as Superintendent of Schools for the Pasadena Unified School District, and each of them, their agents, officers, employees, successors, and all persons acting in concert or participation with them are enjoined from discriminating on the basis of race in the operation of the Pasadena Unified School District.
It is further ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the above-named defendants, and each of them, their agents, officers, employees, successors, and all persons acting in concert or participation with them are enjoined from failing to prepare and adopt a plan to correct racial imbalance at all levels in the Pasadena Unified School District. Defendants are to submit that plan to the Court by February 16, 1970. The plan shall include programs for the assignment, hiring, and promotion of teachers and other professional staff members in such a manner as to reduce racial segregation throughout the District. The plan shall include procedures to be followed and goals to be attained in connection with the location and construction of facilities, both permanent and transportable, that will reduce racial segregation in the District. The plan shall provide for student assignments in such a manner that, by or before the beginning of the school year that commences in September of 1970 there shall be no school in the District, elementary or junior high or senior high school, with a majority of any minority students. The plan shall indicate specifically the expected enrollment by race, at each school in the District at the time the plan is implemented.
The Court retains jurisdiction of this cause in order to continue to observe and evaluate the plans and the execution of the plans of the Pasadena Unified School District in regard to the hiring, promotion, and assignment of teachers and professional staff members, the construction and location of facilities, and the assignment of students.
Claim for attorneys' fees made on behalf of the plaintiffs is denied.
Plaintiffs' costs are taxed against the defendants, and each of them, in the amount of $____________.
Plaintiff-intervenor's cost are taxed against the defendants, and each of them, in the amount of $___________.
Upon consideration of all testimony and exhibits received as evidence in this case, the Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law. Findings of fact numbered 1 through 5, inclusive, are identical to the Findings of Fact filed herein January 22, 1970. The additional findings illustrate the facts upon which the Court relied in making those original findings. Conclusions of law numbered 1 and 2, below, are identical to those filed herein January 22, 1970.
1. The evidence in this case establishes that there is racial imbalance or segregation in the student bodies and faculties of the Pasadena Unified School District at all levels, elementary schools, junior high schools, and senior high schools.
2. That imbalance is a result of defendants' failure to carry out their announced policies of integration, policies that relate both to faculty and student assignments.
3. These failures have occurred in connection with the teacher assignment, hiring, and promotion policies and practices of the District, its construction policies and practices, and its assignment of students.
4. The Court has also noted with concern the racial effects of the District's interclass grouping policies and procedures. Because of the delicate educational nature of decisions concerning grouping, the Court does not at this time deem it appropriate to enter an Order in this regard, but urges the people of Pasadena to examine carefully the grouping policies of their District.
5. Pasadena City Board of Education has used a neighborhood school policy and a policy against forced cross-town bussing to explain its failure to carry out its policies of integrating students and teachers and staff members. The neighborhood school policy is an educational consideration, but it does not normally have constitutional proportions. Under facts of which Pasadena City Board of Education has been aware since at least 1958 as they affect the District's elementary schools, it can be recognized that the use of the neighborhood school policy results in racial imbalance and increasing racial imbalance. The same is true of the policy against cross-town bussing.
6. This is a school desegregation action, commenced by students in the Pasadena Unified School District (hereinafter called, the District), in which the United States intervened as plaintiff after the Attorney General certified it was a case of general public importance, pursuant to Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000h-2. The defendants are the Pasadena City Board of Education (hereinafter called, the Board), its members, and the District's superintendent. Two former Board members, Steve Salisian and John Welsh,1 were named as defendants, but remain in the case only as to the issue of attorneys' fees raised by plaintiffs.
7. The Board operates the 28 elementary schools, five junior high schools, three senior high schools, and two special schools of the District. The District contains within its boundaries all of the City of Pasadena, the unincorporated town of Altadena, the City of Sierra Madre, and portions of Los Angeles County near the eastern boundary of the City of Pasadena.
8. For the 1969-70 school year the District has enrolled 30,622 students, 17,859 Caucasian, 9,173 black, and 3,590 of Other minority ethnic or racial backgrounds.2 There are 1,198 teachers, 1,034 white, 121 black,...
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