Discrimination suit filed against high school district

Marissa Espino

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Fountain Valley resident Bruce Crawford is suing the

Huntington Beach Union High School District, charging that the high

school is discriminating against students who want to transfer to other

schools in the district.

“The open enrollment policy discriminates against everybody,” Crawford

said. “It affects whites trying to get out of the schools, and minorities

who are trying to get in, based on some arbitrary number they come up

with.”

The Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit organization representing

Crawford, filed the suit Friday.

Supt. Susan Roper said the district had not been notified as of Tuesday

night, but Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Harold Johnson said the

district would receive a courtesy copy of the suit this week.

Crawford, who ran for the school board last November, said he is suing

the district for violating Proposition 209, which says “the state shall

not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any

individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or

national origin in the operation of public employment, public education

or public contracting.”

The open enrollment policy has been under much debate since April, when

Ocean View and Westminster high school parents complained about the

controversial policy that prevents some white students from transferring

to their school of choice because the high schools need to remain

racially balanced.

In May, the board voted 4-1 to approve a policy revision that required

schools’ ethnic makeup to be no less than 15% below the district’s ethnic

balance, which is 51% white. The change also included a provision that

the policy would be examined every November.

Matthew Harper, who fought adamantly to abolish the racial quotas, did

not support the revision.

“I thought something like this would happen at one time or another,”

Harper said. “The authors of Proposition 209 have stated the policy is

not allowed under the current constitution.”

Jim Peterson considered suing the district after fighting to get his

daughter, who is now a freshman, to attend Huntington Beach High School,

even though they lived within Ocean View High School boundaries.

Although the board changed the policy, it still discriminates against

students, Peterson said.

“It still left the discriminatory practice, and I still disagree with the

practice even though my daughter was able to successfully transfer,”

Peterson said. “I think we should just eliminate all wording that makes

it discriminatory.”