Injunction Stops Teacher Layoffs at 3 LA Middle Schools

In response to a lawsuit filed in February by the ACLU and the Public Counsel Law Center, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Highberger issued an injunction on Wednesday afternoon, blocking teacher layoffs at three of LAUSD’s lowest performing middle schools—Gompers, Liechty and Markham.

The suit (Reed v. Smith) maintained that budget related teacher layoffs did not affect all the district’s schools equally—-or anything close. Since layoffs were keyed to a teacher’s seniority status, the young teachers who were often sent to troubled, inner city schools were the first to be laid off. Whereas longtime teachers, who were unaffected by layoffs, often chose to work at schools in more affluent neighborhoods.

The net result, said the suit, is that some schools in the LAUSD system lost less than five percent of their teachers. Whereas places like Markham lost 60 percent or more.

At Liechty, for example, a staggering 72 percent of the teachers received layoff notices. At Markham, almost the entire English department was pink-slipped along with every 8th grade history teacher.

This meant that the student populations who were already likely to be struggling the most, had the majority of their teachers suddenly vanish, to be replaced by a rotating group of substitutes who knew none of the students, and who may or may not be familiar with the subject they were teaching.

Thus what began as an economic matter had turned into a civil rights issue that, in fact, violated the terms of the state constitution, argued the ACLU.

Or to put the situation in more personal and human terms, here is a clip from a short statement that one of Markham’s students wrote about her experience with the layoffs:

My name is Concepciona Manuel-Flores. I’m in 7th grade at Markham Middle School. I have had about six or seven substitutes in my English class this year. My other classes are getting me ready for what I want to be (a teacher or a lawyer) but not the class with all the subs.

I think it’s probably different in other schools because they don’t have the same experience I had. I’m happy for kids in other schools who don’t lose their teachers because they’re not going
through what I am.

I always get As in school but one of the subs this year gave me a C because the sub gave that grade to everyone in class. My friend cried when she got the C and I cried a little too…….

A big thank you to Judge Highberger for issuing an injunction that stands up for the educational rights of students like Concepciona.

The LA Times’ Jason Song also reports.