OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A judge said Monday that he would need at least one more day before deciding whether the state of California must immediately intervene to fix a slew of alleged scheduling and instruction problems that a lawsuit claims have deprived students at a Los Angeles high school of learning time.
The request involving Jefferson High School was heard Monday by an Alameda County Superior Court judge who gave no indication how he would rule but said more time would be needed to decide.
The case is part of a lawsuit filed in May against the state that alleges similar problems exist in seven other elementary, middle and high schools in the Los Angeles, Oakland, West Contra Costa and Compton districts.
The lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others says students at the Los Angeles high school have lost seven weeks of instruction because they were assigned classes they had already taken and passed, or given empty class periods.
The suit says some students were not scheduled for courses required to graduate, and that hundreds more had no assigned courses at all on the first day of classes.
“Nearly two months into the school year, this crisis continues, yet state officials are still sitting on their hands,” said David Sapp, director of education advocacy for the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.
