On December 2, 2015, the Washington State Supreme Court declined to hear the District’s petition for review of the appellate ruling.
VICTORY!!!
In an expansive, 49-page ruling, the Washington State Court of Appeals (Division One) reinstated a ruling against the Mercer Island School District that had been overturned by King County Superior Court Judge James Rogers. Judge Rogers had issued a 5-page ruling reaffirming in part, and reversing in part, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Michelle C. Mentzer’s order finding that the Mercer Island School District discriminated against a student in its handling of an October 2011 complaint of racial discrimination. The Appellate decision issued today reversed the Superior Court ruling and reinstated the OSPI decision, finding that the Mercer Island School District violated the Equal Opportunity Education Law (EEOL).
A key issue examined by the Court was whether the correct legal standard had been applied by the lower courts. The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed amicus curae briefs arguing that the “deliberate indifference” standard was too stringent to apply to administrative enforcement proceedings, and the Court agreed, holding that the more-lenient standard articulated by the Office of Civil Rights (“OCR Standard”) should have been applied. Nevertheless, the Court examined the facts under the “deliberate indifference” standard and reaffirmed the original ruling that the District acted with deliberate indifference.
In December 2013, the Mercer Island School District had prevailed in an appeal of an adverse decision by an ALJ concerning racial harassment in the District. Mercer Island had already implemented the remedy ordered by the ALJ, but for their own reasons, they wanted a Superior Court Judge to reverse the ALJ’s ruling. The appeal was filed in early 2013 and oral arguments were on July 12, 2013; but the judge did not issue his ruling until December 9, 2013. As our press release observed, Judge Rogers characterized some of the District’s actions in response to the student’s complaint of harassment as “comically incompetent” and concluded that while the District had behaved in a “negligent” manner, that said negligence did not rise to the level of deliberate indifference. The Judge also reaffirmed the ALJ’s findings that the student was subjected to “severe and pervasive” racial harassment within the Mercer Island School District. His ruling (all 5 pages of it) may be found here. The ALJ’s ruling that the District appealed may be found here.
Click here to see a page that contains the District’s legal billings. The District has spent more than $130,000 in public funds on our case. The District’s squandering of resources was not lost on Judge Rogers, who noted that “this case took more resources than many cases this court has seen where people are permanently blinded or crippled.” He goes on to write: “Our school districts need to simplify their procedures for parents and students and respond more quickly. Cases like this should be resolved rapidly without several years of litigation, in the best interests of the students involved.”