US V. San Francisco Unified School System

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PARTIES INVOLVED
Kinney Kinmon Lau on behalf of the 1,800 non-English speaking students filed a suit against the San Francisco Unified School District.

FACTS
After a mandated integration of the San Francisco school system following a court order in 1971, a report was stated that in the San Francisco Unified School District there were approximately 2,800 students of Chinese decent in their school system that did not speak English. An estimated 1,000 students were receiving language support while the remaining 1,800 students were not receiving any additional support.

In 1973, the 1,800 Chinese students not receiving additional support filed a suit against the San Francisco Unified School District claiming that they are receiving an unequal …show more content…

On January 21, 1971with a vote of 9-0, the Supreme Court reversed the ruling of both lower courts. The opinion of the court was delivered by Justice William O. Douglass. The court did not rule a violation of the Equal Protection Clause but did rule a violation under “Section 601 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any program or activity receiving federal financial …show more content…

The court argued that if a student goes through school not understanding English then they are being deprived of a meaningful education. Furthermore, the Supreme Court used Section 601 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to continue their argument. Section 601 bans discrimination based on color, race, and national origin in any program receiving Federal financial assistance. The San Francisco Unified School District does receive financial assistance and under the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, school districts that receive this funding are required to “rectify the language deficiency” found among their students. Meaning the inability to speak and understand English prevents non-English speaking students from effectively participating in the education program, and it is the districts responsibility to fix that deficiency. With the funds received, they are not allowed to offer services, aids or other benefits to individuals that is different from other individuals in the same program. Discrimination based on race, national origin includes discrimination in the availability or use of academic resources. It is evident that the