Posted on 07/05/2012 9:18:27 AM PDT by southernnorthcarolina
Two legal advocacy groups announced Thursday that the U.S. Department of Education is launching a civil rights investigation into allegations that the Wake County school system is discriminating against some Latino students by not sending their parents important notices in Spanish.
In a June 27 notification letter, Olabisi L. Okubadejo, a team leader for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, says they’ll probe whether Wake is “failing to ensure” that Hispanic families “have meaningful access to information.”
It was up to the discretion of investigators whether to pursue the complaint filed June 12 by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Children’s Services, which is a project of Legal Aid of North Carolina.
“This is good news for all Latino students in Wake County schools whose parents have limited English proficiency,” Peggy Nicholson, an attorney for Advocates for Children’s Services, said in a written statement Thursday.
When the complaint was filed, Wake school officials said the state’s largest school district was reviewing its practices to ensure it’s meeting the needs of families.
“We are disappointed that the organizations have chosen to file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights, but our district is eager to work with OCR staff to resolve the complaint,” according to the district’s statement last month.
The complaint charges that Wake is violating Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 by not providing adequate translation services to Hispanic students whose parents have limited English proficiency. Title VI prohibits institutions that receive federal funding from discriminating based on race and national origin.
In particular, the two groups say that three Latino students were discriminated against because Wake only sent their parents notices in English about them facing long-term suspensions of more than 10 days from school. The complaint charges that since the parents only had limited English skills they were unable to fully intercede on their children’s behalf.
The groups want federal officials to require Wake to make changes such as:
• Provide documents related to suspensions and special education in Spanish to all parents with limited English skills whose primary language is Spanish.
• Develop comprehensive websites in Spanish for school discipline and special education matters.
• Ensure adequate availability of Spanish-speaking staff for the Office of Student Due Process and Special Education Services Department.
• Provide students and parents with limited English skills with training, in Spanish, about their rights.
Citing past federal guidance, the groups contend that Wake should be providing written translation services because Latino students account for 15 percent of the district’s 146,000 students. The fast-growing Hispanic population has helped make Wake the 16th-largest school system in the country.
Federal officials receive thousands of complaints each year but investigates relatively few of them. Wake is no stranger to federal civil rights investigations.
Earlier this week, the Office for Civil Rights announced that it had reached agreements with Wake and three other school districts accused of violating Title IX, the 40-year-old federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs.
Under that agreement, which Wake school officials had announced last month, the district will survey by Dec. 1 all female high school students and those in eighth grade to gauge their interest in sports that are not now offered by the district. Based on the results, Wake will add athletic opportunities at the high schools for the 2013-14 school year.
The Office for Civil Rights is still investigating a complaint filed by the NAACP in September 2010 accusing Wake of engaging in racial discrimination in student assignment and student suspensions.
What if I speak Klingon or Elvish? Can I sic the “justice” department on skrewls that don’t send me notices in my native language?
Here’s an even trade: show school district proof of legal residency or citizenship for documents in Spanish. No displayo, no geto.
It is not exaggeration to say that the SPLC hates all things American.
William Flax
You might even be able to sic the Justice Department on itself if they do not respond in a meaningful Klingon or elvish dialogue.
The very existence of the "Office of Student Due Process" is a one-datum summary of the pathology of government education systems.
But they're good schools, really. Let's just vote them more funding to take surveys about new sports programs and give thugs bilingual lawyers to appeal their suspensions.
Make sure you accuse them of racism if they say you don’t look like a Klingon or an Elf. After all, a person is an oppressed minority if he self-identifies as one, not because of any visible characteristics or genealogical documentation.
1. Feds should have nothing to do with this.
2. Agree that you can’t handle all possible languages that all possible parents speak.
3. The idea that kids should be instructed in something other than English is completely counterproductive.
Having said all THAT - I *can* see the utility of communicating with parents in Spanish if feasible and possible. The kids will learn English in mere months if provided the opportunity. The parents not so much. And if practical and possible, by all means send some notices home in Spanish - we get assembly instructions etc. in Spanish.
BUT - keep the Feds out of this.
Chances are this is the camel’s nose in the tent due to all the OTHER issues going on in Wake County - which I think we all know what those are.
Olabisi L. Okubadejo, a team leader for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, says they’ll probe whether Wake is “failing to ensure” that Hispanic families “have meaningful access to information.”
Does anyone thing Mr. Okaguboo was born in the US or is even a naturalized citizen. How much as a fed ‘Dept. of Education’ educrat thug do you think he is paid in tax payer dollars to engage in making Hispanic thugs a special protected class. That's right Freepers your dollars going to give this parasite a higher income level than most of the US citizens paying taxes and sending their children to the already crappy Wake County schools so he can make the lives of native American taxpayers children even worse . This is life in Obamanation.
They certainly have their priorities straight since so many kids can’t even read when they “graduate” not to mention lack of math skills.
Send the parents information on where they may take English classes. If they do not take them, they do not care about the education of their children. How can they possibly help them with homework or even understand report cards if they do not speak the language.
I graduated from the Wake County Public School system in 1998. It was headed downhill fast even then. I can’t imagine how much “fun” it is now.
The reality is that this school district would save money by providing these services over the cost of defending themselves in court. That's the way the government does business.
And its executive director is the most evil man personally in the state of Alabama.
Yes, you’re right.
Certainly the conduct of the organization, through the years, in trying to foul all communities in which it has any presence, as well as in its commitment to undermine the institutions & culture of the Founding Fathers, the SPLC has few peers. It gets away with such antics only because we have a mainstream media that no longer has a clue in how to analyze inappropriate behavior, and almost no understanding of how a healthy community, State or people actually function.
William Flax
William Flax
I live in Wake County NC. I can only agree that notices should be sent home in Spanish to homes that have presented proof of legal entry into the USA (i.e. green card).
Judging from the bunch who were able to buy the house next door to me and had a family living in every room (now forclosed, thank God) they are too busy drinking beer, pissing in the back yards, blasting mariachi music from their SUVs and raising chickens to read anything anyway. I don’t think those folks would have been able to read anything in Spanish any more than if it was English.
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