Monday, September 18, 2017

JPS parents sue to stop takeover

A group of parents of children enrolled in Jackson Public Schools sued the Mississippi Department of Education today in federal court in an attempt to block an MDE takeover of JPS.  The lawsuit is posted below.

The lawsuit asks the court to issue an emergency injunction to stop any takeover by MDE and for additional relief under Section 1983 of the U.S. Code (Title 42).  The plaintiffs argue their rights were violated because they were not allowed to present their arguments to MDE.  MDE allegedly ignored their due process rights and harmed their children's education when it "defamed" JPS.  The complaint also states that MDE has a poor record of rehabilitating school districts when it has taken them over and has never assumed control of a district as large as JPS.  Some excerpts from the complaint:

56. Yet, to the extent such discussions of the best interests of JPS schoolchildren  occurred at all regarding the JPS District, there was minimal evidence, discussion or consideration in these MDE hearings affecting these Plaintiffs’ significant property and liberty rights.

57. To the contrary, rather than having any MDE accreditation and takeover hearings focused on the best interests of JPS schoolchildren and JPS parents, including student academic performance and/or curricular and extracurricular accomplishments, these MDE accreditation and conservatorship hearings on the JPS District have been more akin to a criminal prosecution....


59. The MDE accreditation and conservatorship  hearings  were  unnecessarily defamatory and adversarial in nature against Plaintiffs’ public school district, and its students, parents, teachers, principals, and administrators.

60. Defendants and MDE have not asked to hear from the Plaintiffs, nor have they given the Plaintiffs any real opportunity to be heard on the Plaintiffs’ public education interests and other Constitutionally-protected rights.

61. To state the obvious, Plaintiffs have an important interest in whether any “extreme emergency situation” is found to exist as to the “safety, security or education” of these JPS Schoolchildren, or any of them.

62. Defendants did not provide Plaintiffs with an opportunity to be heard as to whether any “extreme emergency situation” exists in the District, which is a precondition to takeover by Defendants/MDE.....


68. Indeed, Plaintiffs have valid, reasonable concerns that, if Defendants and MDE are allowed to take over the JPS District, good teachers and administrators will involuntarily leave through terminations, and others will leave voluntarily for less-defamed public schools districts with better job security, pay, parental involvement, and local rather than state control. The inevitable departure of good teachers and administrators from the JPS District will adversely affect Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs have a Constitutionally-recognized right to be heard before their education
rights are affected.....


70. Plaintiffs have valid concerns that, decades after trying to recruit and retain white students back to JPS District schools, those schools will now become less diverse and less integrated—racially, demographically, and economically, thereby harming the JPS District. Indeed,  Plaintiffs reasonably believe that will happen under a conservatorship, which would be antithetical to Plaintiffs’ belief that more diversity is important to their schoolchildren’s broader growth.....


89.  None of the JPS Parents or JPS Schoolchildren were interviewed for the on-site  audit. Upon information and belief, few if any of other JPS parents and JPS’s roughly 27,000 students were either; nor do MDE policies or procedures provide for such....


103. According to Accreditation Audit Procedures, the District Superintendent was to be given 30  school days from receipt of the report to respond to any deficiency cited. The JPS District was given only 8 school days, despite its request for additional time to respond. Likewise, the same procedures require that an exit conference be scheduled between the auditor and the JPS District to explain the auditor’s basis for finding non-compliance. Id. This conference also was not provided.

104. Instead, in its haste to institute MDE conservatorship proceedings against the District, which has much more than just a de minimus impact to the JPS Schoolchildren and JPS Parents, the Commission went forward with a hearing on September 13,  2017 (the “Commission Hearing”), purportedly to address the deficiencies purportedly revealed by the 2017 audit report....


119.  Upon information and belief, Defendant Commissioner Heather Westerfield and the other Commissioners took the MDE audit with them for their deliberations in a separate room, but left behind the binders containing the JPS audit response.




The complaint also accuses the Board of Education of violating the Open Meetings Act:

120. Upon their return, the Commission went directly into executive session, and then segregated themselves to another room that was even smaller than the 70-person capacity Commission Hearing  room.

121.     Upon information and belief, before going into executive session, the Commission failed to vote upon or state the specific exception to the Mississippi Open Meetings Act that it found applicable, as required by Mississippi law. No known applicable exception exists. Such action was illegal and unconstitutional.

122.    Plaintiffs were then not allowed to watch the nearly two hours of Commission deliberations.
123.    Plaintiffs have no way of knowing whether any of their concerns affecting their property and liberty interests were even discussed, or otherwise considered.
The plaintiffs seek an immediate hearing before a federal judge.  The case has not yet been assigned to one.





32 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could be wrong. I think the Dept. of Education has the right under law to withhold funds form KPS is they are not capable of being certified, which they aren't, which is why the Dept. of Education is taking them over.

They can also decertify the schools, which makes a diploma worth nothing to get into college after graduation.

Callaway '81 said...

Well isn't item #70 the race card in a losing hand of poker. How nice.

Anonymous said...

So these parents want their kids to continue to get horrible education? Great parents

Anonymous said...

If there's an American more consumed with white guilt besides Donna Ladd, it's Dorsey Carson.

The only white people in the city limits who send their kids to a JPS school can't afford to send them somewhere to get an education that counts. Except for Dorsey Carson. He voluntarily sends his child/children to a failing school system, then litigates to keep the state from actually trying to save it from the abyss.

He is reinforcing failure. And lining his pockets to do so.

What a despicable man.

Anonymous said...

These poor attorneys can't fine any work because of binding arbitration with any banking, auto purchases, etc., etc., etc.
So they only have the govt. to sue.
Dorsey R. Carson, Jr. is just looking for a little work.

Anonymous said...

I was on the fence about MDE takeover of JPS, but after watching the complete hearing last week and then reading most of the points in this lawsuit, I am absolutely convinced the takeover is the proper thing. It is the only hope JPS has of surviving. This downfall has been going on for years and years. It's not as though MDE just walked into JPS offices one day and said "we're taking over." The writing has been on the wall for over 20 years. Dorsey Carson and others responsible for this lawsuit are nothing more than a bunch of butt hurt cry babies. If anything, the points in this suit should reinforce to the court the necessity of a takeover.

Anonymous said...

Public education embodies American values like equality, pluralism, and anti-sectarianism which are some of our highest ideals. Like learning, these values have been tarnished. Our public educational system is also an economic engine and a focus of community pride. I went to public schools. However, the cultural focus on public education has trended towards everything but learning. Education is the transmission of civilization. The decline of pedagogy is what these state actions are meant to address. If the school board had a handle on what is going on in the classroom, we would not be at this point. The state has a constitutional role in education and at some point they have to take action.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't bringing in more whites increase diversity in Jackson? I'm confused. Anna Powers must have drafted the complaint.

Anonymous said...

Lee Vance will hear about this! Solid set of plaintiffs. Rukia Lumumba is sister of Mayor. Mitch McGuffey is an associate at Forman Watkins and clerked for Barksdale. and Dorsey Carson of course. Good plaintiffs or not - I predict Dorsey will get "manhandled" by the AG's Office

Anonymous said...

There is simply no way for anything that starts with the title "State of Mississippi" to inspire anything but absolute distrust in the predominantly black community. Mississippi earned that. But there are times when the state is the only agency able to provide the help a suicidal community needs. Like a baby taking castor oil they will bitch and moan, but the cure must be administered anyway. It may not be a perfect fix (nothings perfect) but the current course must end. Just ignore the inevitable whining and do what must be done.

Anonymous said...

I have a niece and nephew who attended Jackson Public Schools. Fortunately they moved to Louisiana last September. Unfortunately they both failed and are repeating fourth and first grade. My nephews new teachers in the first grade said it seemed like he had never been to school. To my surprise the school they went to was lead by the district's "Administrator of the Year."
Take it over let them cut the non instructional funding and redirect those funds to the classroom.

Anonymous said...

This lawsuit won't stop it. The lobbying by the neighboring districts will, they don't want the kids who can now freely transfer.

Anonymous said...

The most amusing part of the JPS take over is that usually it's Democrats BEGGING for government assistance/bigger government oversight, but now that the government is stepping in to assist without "being asked" democrats are suddenly singing the Republican tune of "local control for schools".

Anonymous said...

The parents in Madison and Rankin counties will stop this dead in its tracks. Their schools are already overcrowded and to add thousands of, ahem, scholars from JPS would put a huge burden on their already stretched thin resources. The takeover of JPS is DOA.

Kingfish said...

Keep in mind that the kids who transfer are probably the ones whose parents actually care about their education.

As for the children who transferred to Louisiana, I tried to tell y'all this when the charter schools opened. Too many JPS kids came to Reimagine Prep at a first or second grade level in reading and math. The school led the state in growth so it was teaching them but that is where their starting point was. Each child took a diagnostic and the results were discussed with the parents. Many parents had no clue their child was that far behind. See, JPS has a no under 60 (it might be 50, I just don't remember but it was one of the two) policy. Thus if a child was really behind, the parents or all too often, parent, didn't know.

Anonymous said...

Your exactly right Kingfish they had no idea. The Fourth grader was 1 C away from the Honor Roll in Jackson.

Anonymous said...

The reliably windy Dorsey Carson blows more hot air again. This is NOTHING but pandering by Dorsey to Jackson's Democrat BPS as he eyes another run for the MS House in 2019.

Anonymous said...

This case will get dismissed quickly unless it gets assigned to Wingate (assuming he's even allowed to take cases any more).

Anonymous said...

I was reading along until I came to the part where they said MDE "defamed" JPS. Every time I tried to continue reading I started laughing. "Defamed" it is still funny.

Anonymous said...

Parental involvement is the key to a successful school system.
Therefore, JPS will continue to be unsuccessful, with or without a takeover.

Anonymous said...

It's interesting that folks have been so willing to turn over much of their rights and liberties to the government the last 50 years or so. Now, all of a sudden, these same folks want to cry that their due process rights were ignored. Meanwhile, these same folks ignored the deplorable situation at JPS.
We need to be aware that we are becoming more socialist while third world countries are becoming more democratic and capitalist. We cry when a company gets too rich. We cry when the government doesn't stop people from working hard to earn their millions. We cry when the government doesn't stop people from passing down millions to their children. We are a bunch of CRYBABIES!

Anonymous said...

Hinds county & Clinton are lobbying against this too...it's not just Madison and Rankin.

Anonymous said...

Serenity Luckett, who was an acclaimed principal at Brown Elementary in Jackson for a few years, is now an assistant principal at Olde Towne Middle School in Ridgeland. She and her husband, JSU prof Robby Luckett (both Caucasian), moved from Jackson to Madison in 2013. Yes, they have kids.

Anonymous said...

Paragraph 68 complains that the JPS teachers might leave to go to schools with better pay , better job security and better parental involvement. And this must be stopped! Insane.

Anonymous said...

11:15.....What is the point of your post? Thanks in advance.

Anonymous said...

Defamed. HEHE

Anonymous said...

@ 11:33......what successful school district would hire any teacher from the JPS district?

You don't hire teachers / administrators with that kind of track record with the intent of continued success for your students. Funny how other school districts raise the standards, while JPS continues to lower theirs and still can't increase graduation rate. Why would you lower a passing grade to 60 to see some success, but don't?

white guilt ends after elem school said...

Dorsey Carson you say?
read his interview with Donner Ladd's Jackson Free Toilet Paper from 2014...
I think you'll be able to figure out if he is going to keep his kid in JPS past elem school (which folks including Kingfish have pointed out doing things right):

-Do you plan to keep her in Jackson Public Schools past elementary school and middle school?:
"I hope by then that we have the new middle school built in northeast Jackson where she could do that. That would be my hope. I don’t think any parent would use their kid as a Guinea pig if the educational system is not up to par, but there’s no reason that our middle school system can’t be up to par, not just in one or two middle schools but in all of them."

-I guess the trend is, past elementary school, putting kids in private school if you’re still in Jackson, so I was just going to see how you weighed in on that.:
I think that a new middle school that kind of followed the models of the successful elementary school, where you had people that applied to get in—I mean, people are surprised that we actually had to apply to get into McWillie, but there were 90 spots and 200 applicants. I’d be lying if I told you I knew for sure what we’re going to do six years from now. The public schools in general don’t really compete with the private schools, what they compete with are the public schools in the surrounding communities. So, that’s my hope, is that we get those middle schools up to par so that we no longer lose our middle class.

Anonymous said...

If I was a parent at Jim Hill Or Provine, I would have filed a lawsuit against JPS a long time ago for negligence. Who amongst the school board would put their child in that dumpster of a building? Everyone on that board probably had children at JPS when they had husband and wife households. Not today.# If the shoe fits wear it on.

Anonymous said...

JPS is a disaster that would have been cleaned out years ago if you had involved parents. Involved parents would have marched on City Hall and vot d the bums out. Most of the current parents probably went to JPS and probably the 35-45 year old grandparents as well. Do they not care that their children cannot read or write? Must not. This is a social/culture breakdown, not just a bad school system. Big northeastern liberal Daniel Patrick Moynihan nailed it in the 60s with his publication on the breakdown of the black family. Not a new phenomenon folks. Einstein could not fix JPS, because there is no will to fix it. Dorsey Carson is grandstanding for his limited audience. Nothing new there.

And should anyone gloat, the white population is not far behind in illegitimate children, drug use, and crime. Have you looked at the meth arrests and opioids arrests in white rural America lately? When all social stigmas were struck down and deemed insensitive (out of wedlock birth went from very frowned upon to what a wonderful thing - you are having a baby we all get to pay for since you are indigent). We ended up with - Anything Goes, if it feels good do it.

A complete shit show brought to you by the "more caring and socially progressive" lefties. Good job "progressives", you own this.

Anonymous said...

A cursory glance at the list of parents bringing this suit - looks like tmost of their kids attend McWillie and/or the JPS APAC program. I may be wrong, but those are not open enrollment/all access options. Wonder how the parents whose kids go to Johnson Elementary feel about the looming takeover? What impact will the looming takeover have on McWillie and APAC?

Anonymous said...

What if they were to put Kim Wade in charge of JPS as conservator? He might not solve any problems but he could damned sure talk about them.



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