Trahan ex rel. Trahan v. Lafayette Parish School Board

330 F. Supp. 450, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12047
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Louisiana
DecidedAugust 13, 1971
DocketCiv. A. No. 10903
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 330 F. Supp. 450 (Trahan ex rel. Trahan v. Lafayette Parish School Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Trahan ex rel. Trahan v. Lafayette Parish School Board, 330 F. Supp. 450, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12047 (W.D. La. 1971).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

PUTNAM, District Judge.

This case, filed on March 5, 1965, is before the court for the fifth time on motion by plaintiffs for further relief, following decision by the Supreme Court of the cases of Swann, et al. v. Charlotte-Meeklenburg Board of Education, et al., 402 U.S. 1, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 28 L.Ed.2d 554, and Davis, et al. v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County, et al., 402 U.S. 33, 91 S.Ct. 1289, 28 L.Ed.2d 577, decided April 20, 1971.

A review of past action by the Board would provide us with nothing more than the familiar pattern of desegregation reported in countless decisions throughout the country since Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954), through freedom of choice under a two-grade-a-year plan, then under the "model” decree of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Jefferson County Board of Education, 372 F.2d 836; 380 F.2d 385 (1966-1967), then, following Green v. County School Board, 391 U.S. 430, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968); Raney v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 443, 88 S.Ct. 1697, 20 L.Ed.2d 727 (1968); Monroe v. Board of Commissioners, 391 U.S. 450, 88 S.Ct. 1700, 20 L.Ed.2d 733 (1968), and the decision of Hall v. St. Helena Parish, 417 F.2d 801, 5 Cir. 1969, to a two-step plan based upon a combination of pairing and zoning techniques adopted by the Board following a pretrial conference held in July, 1969, which is the plan under which the system was operated until the end of the 1970-71 term. Phase I of the plan, which successfully terminated the dual school system in the rural areas of Lafayette Parish, was implemented without incident. Because of the good faith demonstrated by this School Board at that time and the facts developed at the pretrial conference mentioned above, in which the HEW team concurred, no appeal was taken from our decree of August 11, 1969, and this parish escaped the holocaust resulting in many other parishes of this and our neighboring states following reversal of the decision of the court in Singleton v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District, 419 F.2d 1211, 5 Cir. 1969, in Carter v. West Feliciana Parish, et al., 1970, 396 U.S. 290, 90 S.Ct. 608, 24 L.Ed.2d 477, which directed that in all cases consolidated therewith student desegregation be accomplished in all schools by February 1, 1970.

During the summer vacation of 1970 no complaint was formally lodged with this court against implementation of Phase II of the Lafayette Plan, which applied to 19 public schools in the city of Lafayette and its immediate environs, attended by 15,932 of the 27,899 public school students in the entire parish. This plan called for closure of Paul Breaux High School, a facility constructed in 1953 and 1954 to accommodate all of the Negro high school students in the parish of Lafayette. We must here note that these students were bussed into Paul Breaux High from the rural areas of the parish, some students travelling as much as twenty miles, round trip, each day. The Paul Breaux campus is located on the north side of [452]*452the city in an almost all-Negro residential area.

At the close of the 1970-71 school year, there were 6730 Negro students enrolled in this school system. Of these, 1967 were attending 18 fully integrated rural schools included in Phase I of the plan. For these students, the second year of equal educational opportunity had concluded. See Appendix I and attached map.

The remaining 4763 Negro students, approximately 71 % of the system’s black children, were enrolled in the city schools encompassed by Phase II of the plan, with 2837 of these, or approximately 60%, attending six of the 19 schools in the city area, namely, Vermilion Elementary, W. A. Lerosen Elementary, Paul Breaux Elementary, St. Antoine Elementary, J. W. James Elementary, and Truman Elementary. As to student population, the precentages ranged from 76.1% black at Lerosen to 95.3% black at Truman. Faculty composition had greatly improved, with only one school, Paul Breaux Elementary, having a predominantly black faculty. See Appendix II and attached map.

Although projections made in 1969 when the plan was approved promised a more equitable distribution of students and complete faculty integration as required by Singleton, supra, in the fall of 1970, these projections failed to materialize. The Lafayette Parish School Board, therefore, was maintaining six schools included in Phase II which were identifiable as tailored for black students by reason of student composition and the location of the physical plants in predominantly Negro housing areas as a result of the past era of state-imposed segregation, at the end of the 1970-71 term.

Plaintiffs’ motion sought two primary objectives — reopening Paul Breaux High School and institution of a bussing plan to bring about an evenly balanced student population of approximately 75% white and 25% black ratio in each school in the system. In addition, plaintiffs requested employment and assignment of more black female physical education instructors, coaches, and principals in the system.

A hearing was held on this motion on June 28th. of this year. There was no evidence to support the claim that closure of the Paul Breaux High School was racially motivated. On the contrary, this record reflects that it was kept open during 1969-70 because of the hardship its immediate closure would work upon the senior class, many of whom had purchased graduation rings and which had elected its class officers. And, during the 1969 pretrial discussions, as the record thereof demonstrates, it was stated that the Board intended to use the facility for establishment of a vocational educational center for the entire system, because of its central location and accessibility to students from the rural areas. During the 1970-71 school year, moreover, the Board has gone forward with these plans and has contracted work to refurbish a portion of the facility for this purpose at considerable expense.1 It will be administered on a nondiscriminatory basis, and is generally regarded as an educational advance of considerable significance, not only to Lafayette Parish but as a model for other school districts in this area.

Moreover, the very purpose for which the former high school was built was to perpetuate an invidious discrimination against Negro high school students under the old state-imposed segregated system. Conversion to this use by whites and blacks alike, will, in the opinion of this court, exorcise from the system a constant reminder of past inequities.

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Related

Trahan v. Lafayette Parish School Board
362 F. Supp. 503 (W.D. Louisiana, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
330 F. Supp. 450, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12047, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trahan-ex-rel-trahan-v-lafayette-parish-school-board-lawd-1971.