Dallas Principal Guilty Of Segregation

Last April, a group of Hispanic students and parents filed suit in federal court, charging that Preston Hollow Elementary School and the Dallas Independent School District were not treating them fairly. Yesterday, federal Judge Sam A. Lindsay agreed with them.

The judge ruled that Teresa Parker, principal at Preston Hollow Elementary, had violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Judge Lindsay said she had done this by using English As A Second Language classes to segregrate minority students from white students.

The ESL classes are intended for students who have little or no knowledge of the English language. However, Parker was putting ALL Hispanic students into the ESL classes -- even those who were proficient in English, while she was putting white students with the same skills into the general education classes.

Then just to make matters worse and leave no doubt about her racism, she put all the ESL [read minority] students' classrooms on a hall separate from the classrooms of the white students.

Has this woman never heard of Brown v. Board of Education? Or does she just not care about the Supreme Court decision and the law? I believe the Justices were very clear when they said, "Separate is inherently unequal."

Judge Lindsay has given Parker until January 17th to correct her unconstitutional actions. She can no longer segregrate students based on their ethnicity alone. David Urias, an attorney for the Mexican Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said, "The most important thing that's going to happen now is that they're not going to be segregated. [Classes will be] based on actual educational needs."

In addition, Judge Lindsay ordered Parker to pay $100 in nominal damages and $10,000 in punitive damages to each of two students named in the lawsuit.

The judge did not hold DISD or its superintendent liable in the case, but I do. They either did not know what was going on in this school, or they approved of it. Neither scenario is acceptable. Principals are not infallible, and they're not all good people. They must be subject to oversight just like any other DISD employee.

DISD can start to make things right by making sure the appropriate changes are made by January 17th. They should also fire this principal, and replace her with someone who is not a bigot. After all, she has violated the supreme law of our land -- the Constitution of the United States of America.