More US Schools Accused of Denying Education to Immigrants
July 19, 2016 – AP
PHILADELPHIA — Civil rights lawyers have sued a third U.S. school district over what they call a practice of denying older refugee and immigrant students a meaningful education by steering them to alternative high schools.
The plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Pennsylvania are refugees ages 17 to 21 who came to the U.S. from Myanmar, Sudan and other war-torn countries.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the Lancaster School District has steered at least 30 students over three years to a disciplinary high school, denying them the classes and services offered at the traditional high school.
Some of the students had been in refugee camps for years, said Witold “Vic” Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which filed the suit along with the Education Law Center and others.