ORANGE, Calif. (SBE) – Leading civil rights law firm May Jung Law, along with nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump, has filed a putative class action lawsuit against the Orange Unified School District (“OUSD”). This action outlines the numerous alleged constitutional and statutory violations that the OUSD and its employees have perpetrated against minors.
The lawsuit alleges that OUSD disciplines Black and Brown children at 2-3 times the rate of white students. The probability of this deviation occurring by chance is no less than 1-in-70 million.
“On a daily basis, we entrust our children’s physical and emotional well-being and safety to our student educators. It is an egregious abuse of power for the OUSD to take that trust and deny our children the most basic and fundamental protections at school because they are children of color and minors who may not know their rights,” said Jessica Meeder, senior counsel at May Jung Law.
The lawsuit also addresses OUSD’s alleged significant violations of fundamental due process, whereby a 14-year-old boy’s normal interpersonal interactions with his 14-year-old female peers were disciplined as sexual harassment. Not only was he disciplined for this behavior, but he was also further punished under the OUSD’s secretive and unpublicized disciplinary processes by being expelled from his high school.
The OUSD’s actions and omissions addressed in this lawsuit demonstrate a warped and perverted application of the legitimate efforts and progress that the #MeToo movement has made.
“In the OUSD’s overzealous hunt to impose a ‘Harvey Weinstein narrative’ on a 14-year-old minor, it disregarded the rights of the children it is privileged to protect and its obligations to nurture and develop them,” said Je Yon Jung, partner at May Jung Law.
The attorneys are seeking other Black and Latinx/Hispanic children in the OUSD who may want to be a part of the class action and who were subjected to discipline (i.e., suspension, expulsion, and/or “involuntary placement”), including those subjected to the “Student Success Panel” or “SSP” process.
If you think you or your child may qualify, please call 1-833-MAY-JUNG (629-5864) or visit www.mayjung.com.