Magistrate: Zoning suit flawed
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Attendance zones adopted last year by the Ascension Parish School Board have not been proved racially discriminatory, a federal magistrate in Baton Rouge concluded.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Christine Noland recommended Wednesday that U.S. District Judge Ralph E. Tyson dismiss a civil rights suit filed by Darrin Kenny Lewis Sr.
Lewis is a black parent who argued the new plan unfairly would route his children to East Ascension High School, which has more minority and economically disadvantaged students than other parish schools on the east side of the Mississippi River.
Jill L. Craft, a Baton Rouge attorney for Lewis, said Thursday an appeal would be filed. Craft said Judge Tyson would be asked to reject Noland’s recommendation.
“I think the law is very much on his (Lewis’) side,” Craft said. “This kind of litigation often takes a very long time, and we’re certainly on board for the long haul.”
Lewis argues in the suit that the minority population at East Ascension High is growing so rapidly that his children will not have as many opportunities to interact with white students as children at other schools on the east bank. Prior to realignment of school attendance zones, his children would have been routed to Dutchtown High.
Lewis also argues that his property values are retreating since last year’s rezoning.
Noland, however, said Lewis “has not presented any competent evidence demonstrating that the appraised value of even one black home within the East Ascension school zone has actually fallen” since the board’s adoption of the new attendance zones.
The judge added that Lewis testified his home’s appraised value increased from $85,000 in 1996 to $150,000 in 2005. She said no evidence was presented regarding any subsequent appraisals.
As for racial discrimination, Noland said the School Board’s new attendance zone rules re-assign students to East Ascension High “and its feeder schools based upon their geographical location; thus, the plan is race-neutral on its face.”
Noland noted that East Ascension High has “about twice as many minority students as (Dutchtown High) and approximately three times as many minority students as (St. Amant High).
The magistrate said the School Board’s rezoning plan appears to have considered race as a factor in that plan.
She added, though, that race “was considered in an effort at maintaining the racial balance already existing among the schools in East Ascension Parish and in maintaining the school district’s unitary status.”
Noland concluded there was no “racially discriminatory motive designed to allocate a ‘disproportionate number’ of African American students to the East Ascension school zone.”
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