U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. on Monday reversed his earlier decision to dismiss Education Commissioner Johnny Key as a defendant in a lawsuit regarding the state-controlled Little Rock School District.
"Unopposed motion to clarify, granted," Marshall said in the brief order. "Johnny Key in his official capacity as Commissioner of Education, is a defendant only to the extent that he has exercised (and is exercising) all authority of the LRSD board of directors as may be necessary for the day to day governance of the school district."
Marshall's order is the latest development in a lawsuit filed by two former Little Rock School Board members and the relatives of district students, most of whom are not named but use pseudonyms.
The suit challenged the January 2015 state takeover of the Little Rock district, the dismissal of Little Rock's elected School Board and the expansion of publicly funded charter schools in the district. It also alleged disparate treatment of students and inequitable conditions of the school buildings in the district. Those claims have not been dismissed by the judge and will be the subject of a federal court trial in July.
In September 2016, Marshall dismissed racial-bias claims against state education leaders in the lawsuit. Attorneys for the plaintiffs asked him to reconsider that decision in light of Key's responsibility to act as the school board in the district.
Metro on 01/24/2017