Hear Cancel the Contract education justice organizer Raquel Derfler and Neighborhood Legal Services (NLS) attorney Chelsea Helena speak out on KPFK radio about the legal action filed with Equal Justice Society in May to stop the Antelope Valley Union High School District’s discriminatory suspensions and expulsions of Black students and students with disabilities.
As Raquel and Chelsea lay out citing an explosive independent report on the District’s practices that accompanied the lawsuit, 53 percent of the students that the school district suspends are Black even though Black students make up only 14 percent of the student body.
Students with disabilities, whom, as alleged in the lawsuit, the district segregates from their peers in violation of the ADA, are twice as likely to be suspended compared to their peers who are not disabled.
Plaintiffs Cancel the Contract and affected individual students and their parents, represented by EJS, NLS and Kilpatrick Townsend, seek a court order to stop the District from suspending students for reasons not recognized under California law, and to enforce student due process rights and the right to go to school free from abuse and race and disability discrimination.
Cancel the Contract and the individual plaintiffs want to create a safe and welcoming learning environment where all students can learn and thrive together.