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Families File Lawsuit To Prevent Sacramento School Closures

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A group filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit saying their schools were unfairly targeted for closure because of the socioeconomic status of the students and families.

Dozens rallied in front of the federal courthouse as they announced the lawsuit to keep Huntington, Washington, Maple, Fruit Ridge, Bonnheim, Hopkins and Clayton B. Wire schools open.

Jonathan Tran is with Hmong Innovating Politics, who is helping with the lawsuit. He says the schools targeted for closure were targeted because of their economically disadvantaged student bodies.

"The district applied an arbitrary and illegitimate standard to target schools that are predominantly high in low-income and minority populations," he said. "At the end of the day, that is unacceptable."

CBS13 analyzed the school closure data and found the state classifies all seven schools targeted for closure as having their entire student body socioeconomically disadvantaged. Of the four schools that were spared from closure, Tahoe and James Marshall have fewer students considered disadvantaged.

The school district calls that a coincidence, insisting they were looking at schools without enough students.

But CBS13 found of the seven schools with the lowest enrollments districtwide, only three are among those now closed for good.

District spokesman Gabe Ross released the following statement criticizing the lawsuit:

"...it's unfortunate that the District must now spend tens of thousands of dollars to defend an unsubstantiated and baseless lawsuit. The decision four months ago to close seven of our most under-enrolled schools was precipitated by the current and ongoing budgetary burden of operating and staffing these schools."

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