Forum Index
»
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
Have you met Harmeet Dillon, head of DOJ Civil Rights Division of the DOJ? Her team has swooped in for far less events. This situation could be a very easy way for the White House to bash a large blue county right in Trump’s backyard - especially one represented by Jamie Raskin (one of nemeses who led his impeachment). Also, don’t forget Trump is a builder and would love to bash MCPS over building a $300m school nobody needed and is closing a top school to cover up its incompetence. The recent shooting might also get some mention…. Seems like a story with a great political angle for an election year. |
And you think that this won't be appealed, the can kicked down the road, until the school is opened? Not sure if you remember. but that was the MCPS tactic that dragged out the Magnet lottery lawsuit that ended, oh, idk, 3'ish years later? And what did the judge say? Oh, right, moot point. Move along, nothing to see here. |
The PP is so desperate to be right (and clearly isn’t a lawyer). This isn’t how litigation works. If a judge grants an injunction, MCPS can try to appeal it, but good luck with that. There is far less harm to MCPS in allowing Wootton to remain where it is (for now) than MCPS would suffer in opening Crown at below capacity. Even then, MCPS has the ability to fill Crown with plenty of kids from other schools, just not those from Wootton. Also, if the City of Rockville joins in the case or files a friend of the court brief, the judge is quite likely to issue a temporary injunction. MCPS can plan for closing and moving Wootton - it just wouldn’t be able to actually do it until the case is resolved. |
lol. I can see the headlines now, "New school sits idle as City of Rockville bickers over who attends." |
Nope. You didn’t read the bold. Or maybe you did and ignored it. MCPS would have an even bigger black eye if it said “we need to fill Crown with kids - no, not the Hispanic and AA kids from GHS, QO, etc…we want Wootton’s kids”. |
It's a civil rights complaint over language translations. -The most likely positive outcome for the complainants is MCPS providing translations in more languages. Not an injunction forcing kids into an unsafe school. |
Right. MCPS might be ordered to conduct listening sessions with translation into Vietnamese moving forward, but the lawsuit isn't going to end in MCPS not moving the school, because changing school boundaries/attendance is fully within the rights of a school district, as settled law. |
Doing this as a civil rights complaint appears to be an implicit acknowledge that they don't have a legal case. Will they even file this in federal court or just write to the Department of Education? |
| HA. First, this administration has also already pulled back existing disparate impact regulations and won't enforce them. Next, this administration also rescinded EO13166 so basically all LEP cases are toast. |
To be fair, the administration has also demonstrated a willingness to ignore their own policies and precedents when they think it suits them. But I don't see how intervening here suits them politically. It doesn't help them in Montgomery County and this isn't an issue with national interest. |
It’s only one group at Wootton bringing this - the Asian community. There are other groups organizing based on regulatory grounds. Can MCPS fight on multiple fronts? Does the BOE really wants do that in an election year? Some BOE members are running for higher office. |
Can they? Sure. They do that all the time. Will they have to on this issue? Probably not. The Wootton service area homeowners haven't identified a plausible legal arguement yet. It doesn't matter how many ideas you come up with if they're all bad. |
It’s a layup right in the administration’s backyard and a chance to embarrass Jamie Raskin and possibly Wes Moore (who has national ambitions). DOJ doesn’t have to intervene - it just needs to open an investigation. |
You may not agree with any of their theories of the case, but it only takes one to be believed by a judge. We will see…. |
But it must conduct those before accepting the recommendation. |