A reply has been filed in the ongoing court battle between the Ascension Parish School Board and a local parent.
The plaintiff, Darrin Kenny Lewis Sr., filed a sur-reply to address new arguments and evidence set for in the defendant’s reply filed June 19, according to the civil action document filed in United States District Court.
“The plaintiffs have alleged that allocating a disproportionate number of ‘at risk’ students (of all races) into East Ascension High School and its feeder system, which already contains a disproportionate number of minority students, deprives those minority students of equal access to a quality education,” the document reads.
The plaintiffs have alleged that the feeder school system “has created a progressively segregated system” and “a disproportionately large number of minority students are being deprived of educational opportunities equal to the opportunities afforded to the students in the two predominantly white systems.”
The defendant asserted that “...Option 2f and the feeder plan are facially neutral...” in regard to race, economic status or otherwise.
The School Board adopted the option Jan. 15, 2008.
Called Boundary Implementation Schedule Option 2F, the plan would transfer students who once fed into Dutchtown High School in Geismar into East Ascension High School in Gonzales.
The plan is an attempt to cut down overcrowding by spreading the population from one east bank high school to another.
A copy of Darrin Kenny Lewis Sr. vs. Ascension Parish School Board is available on the Web site www.socs07.org, inluding the newest filing on June 30.
