Blunt v. Lower Merion School District

262 F.R.D. 481, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73582, 2009 WL 2526437
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 19, 2009
DocketCivil Action No. 07-3100
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 262 F.R.D. 481 (Blunt v. Lower Merion School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blunt v. Lower Merion School District, 262 F.R.D. 481, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73582, 2009 WL 2526437 (E.D. Pa. 2009).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

BARTLE, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs Lydia Johnson, Carol Durrell and her daughters Saleema Hall and Chantae Hall, Christine Dudley and her son Walter Whiteman, June Coleman and her son Richard Coleman, Lynda Muse and her daughter Quiana Griffin, as well as two advocacy organizations, the Mainline Branch of the NAACP (“NAACP”) and the Concerned Black Parents of Mainline, Inc. (“Concerned Black Parents”) bring this putative class action against the Lower Merion School District, its Board (collectively the “School District”) and the Pennsylvania Department of Education (“PDE”).1 Before the court is the motion of the named plaintiffs for class certification pursuant to Rules 23(a) and (b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Defendants oppose the motion and move to dismiss the claims of Concerned Black Parents and the NAACP for lack of standing. In addition, the PDE argues that all plaintiffs’ claims against it are barred as part of a settlement in Gaskin v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, No. 09-4048 (E.D.Pa.).2

Plaintiffs assert intentional and systematic racial discrimination against African American students with learning disabilities in violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”), 20 U.S.C. § 1400, et seq., and 34 C.F.R. § 300.600, the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. § 12132, et seq., § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794(a), Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, and § 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. They also claim the PDE has failed in its responsibility to oversee the provision of special education [485]*485services by the School District for children with disabilities in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in violation of the IDEA.

Plaintiffs seek injunctive relief “to ensure that the District properly edueate[s] all African American students with disabilities so that they can become literate, valuable, and contributing members of their classroom communities.” They also request compensatory education for those students who were deprived of an adequate education as well as an order requiring the PDE to monitor whether the School District is correctly identifying African American students with disabilities for placement in special education classes and complying with the IDEA.

The plaintiffs describe the class which they seek to represent, pursuant to Rules 23(a) and (b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as:

All present and future African American students in the Lower Merion School District who are denied access to the general education curriculum; are placed in below grade level classes; receive a modified curriculum; and/or are sent to separate, segregated schools that provide them with an education inferior to the education provided their Caucasian peers with and without disabilities.

I.

As noted above, the named plaintiffs are: (1) several current and former African American students in the School District who have been identified as having a learning disability; (2) the parents of such students; and (3) two advocacy organizations.

In their third amended complaint, plaintiffs assert the School District discriminates against African American students with learning disabilities by making educational placement decisions on the basis of race. They contend the School District removes African American students from the general education curriculum and places them in separate, lower level classes that are predominantly African American. They highlight that while 8.1% of students in the School District are African American, African American students make up 90% to 100% of the students in “modified” or lower level education classes. They further contend that African American students with disabilities are segregated in greater proportion from the regular curriculum for at least 21% of their day than are their Caucasian peers with disabilities. Once in the lower level classes, these students with disabilities have no opportunities to re-enter the general curriculum or an educational track that would prepare them for college. The problem, according to plaintiffs, is compounded by the fact that these students do not receive an appropriate education in the lower level classes. Instead, they are given passing grades and are graduated, despite the fact that they cannot, in many instances, read or do basic math.

Plaintiffs maintain that the PDE is essentially complicit in the School District’s alleged systematic and intentional racial discrimination. They submit that the PDE has failed in its responsibility under the IDEA to supervise and monitor the School District to ensure that students with learning disabilities within the Commonwealth are provided, among other things, with a free, appropriate public education.

II.

We begin by addressing the School District’s argument that neither the NAACP nor Concerned Black Parents has standing to pursue their claims or serve as representatives of the proposed class. Plaintiffs no longer press to have the NAACP certified as a class representative, and the NAACP does not appear to contest that it lacks standing to pursue claims in its own right or on behalf of its members.

According to the third amended complaint, Concerned Black Parents is a nonprofit Pennsylvania corporation whose purpose includes the promotion of “equity and excellence in the response of school districts to the needs of diverse student populations; to address issues related to education for populations identified as minority and/or African American; and to identify, monitor, and inform parents about educational issues impacting disadvantaged students, their families and the community at large.” The or[486]*486ganization’s bylaws specifically state “The Corporation shall have no members.”

It is well-settled that the “irreducible constitutional minimum of standing” requires that the plaintiff has suffered an “injury in fact,” which our Supreme Court has described as “an invasion of a legally protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized” and “(b) actual or imminent!!]” Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). Thus, in order to have “independent standing” to sue in its own right, Concerned Black Parents will need to demonstrate it suffered an “injury in fact.” Hill v. Park, No. 03-4677, 2004 WL 180044 (E.D.Pa. Jan.27, 2004).

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Bluebook (online)
262 F.R.D. 481, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73582, 2009 WL 2526437, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blunt-v-lower-merion-school-district-paed-2009.