U.S.A. FEDERAL JUDGE DEALS BLOW TO "DISABILITY TREATY" CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT ATTEMPT TO BLOCK CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOL CLOSING/CONSOLIDATION

U.S.A. FEDERAL JUDGE DEALS BLOW TO "DISABILITY TREATY" CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT ATTEMPT TO BLOCK CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOL CLOSING/CONSOLIDATION

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Tribune reporter, 08/12/13

A federal judge has denied class-action status to plaintiffs in two lawsuits seeking to block school closings in Chicago.

The two lawsuits, backed by the Chicago Teachers Union, said students with disabilities and African American students are disproportionately harmed by the closures. They were filed by Chicago Public Schools’ parents whose children would be affected by the closings.

In a 26-page opinion released late Friday, U.S. District Judge John Lee said plaintiffs were unable to establish that either African American children or special education students would “suffer a common class-wide injury as a result of the changes.”

Lee is expected to rule any day on a request for a preliminary injunction to stop the closings. School starts Aug. 26, and 47 of the 49 elementary schools the district wants to close shut down this summer.

“We’re still waiting to hear back on our motion for preliminary injunction,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney Tom Geoghegan.

In hearings last month, a witness for the plaintiffs testified that a significant portion of the students could actually benefit academically from the closings over time, the judge wrote in his decision against class action status.

Similarly, the case alleged that children with disabilities would be at risk of danger as they walked through unfamiliar neighborhoods, yet three of the plaintiffs’ children would be receiving busing from CPS, Lee noted.

A lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court that sought to stop 10 of the school closings was unsuccessful.

nahmed@tribune.com