ACLU in settlement talks with California district over claims of racial profiling of Latino students
The Glendale News-Press reports that the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU-SCA) has entered into preliminary negotiations with the City of Glendale and Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) regarding a lawsuit alleging racial profiling of Latino students at Hoover High School. In October 2011, the ACLU-SCA filed a lawsuit in federal district court alleging that dozens of Latino students were detained and searched during lunch on Sept. 24, 2010. The students claim they were intimidated and interrogated about any gang affiliations, and were ordered to stop hanging out with one another at lunch. According to the lawsuit, students allegedly targeted in the roundup were kept for about an hour in two separate classrooms, where they were frisked and questioned by Glendale and Los Angeles police officers about possible gang ties.
Glendale and Los Angeles police departments were also named as defendants in the lawsuit, alongside GUSD. ACLU-SCA attorney David Sapp said, “We feel very good about the possibility of being able to resolve our claims against the two sets of defendants in Glendale.” GUSD spokesman Steve Frasher declined to comment on the negotiations, but described the allegations of racial profiling as “ridiculous.” The action was designed as a deterrent for some students who school officials were concerned were at risk for being “sucked into the gang lifestyle,” he said. The article reports that a mediated telephone conference is scheduled for April 12.
Source: Glendale News-Press, 3/29/12, By Megan O’Neil
[Editor's Note: In October 2011, Legal Clips summarized an article in the Los Angeles Times reporting that ACLU-SCA had filed the lawsuit against GUSD administrators, the Glendale and Los Angeles police departments, and the Los Angeles County Probation Department alleging that on Sept. 24, 2010, 55 Latino high school students were illegally detained, searched and interrogated in what the ACLU characterizes as “a textbook case of racial profiling.”]
