From the Texas Tribune
“The complaint claims Bonham ISD and a city court discriminated against both Black students and disabled students by creating a hostile environment at school. The groups also filed a separate complaint against Corpus Christi ISD with the Texas Education Agency.
Four civil rights groups filed a federal complaint on Tuesday accusing the municipal court and public school district of the northeast Texas town of Bonham of unfairly penalizing Black and disabled students for behavior complaints by pushing them out of schools and sometimes into the county jail.
The four groups — Disability Rights Texas, Texas Appleseed, Texas Civil Rights Project, and the National Center for Youth Law — have asked the U.S. Department of Justice to require the district to compensate specifically harmed students for damages, as well as modify its absence guidelines and implement bias training for both court and school employees.
The complaint alleges that the city’s municipal court and Bonham ISD, located outside of Dallas, has discriminated against both Black students and disabled students through creating a hostile environment at school and often sending them to the disciplinary alternative education program, known as DAEP, which educates students who commit specific disciplinary or criminal offenses separately from their peers.
Also on Tuesday, the groups filed a complaint with the Texas Education Agency for similar issues for disabled students in the Corpus Christi Independent School District. Neither district has responded to immediate requests for comment.
“School districts are very overwhelmed, and instead of doing what they need to do to serve students properly, they’re trying to find an easy way out,” said Olivia Lee, an attorney with Disability Rights Texas who signed the complaint.”