A group of local parents and grandparents have filed a federal lawsuit against the Blytheville School District, claiming the district exercised "unlawful and unconstitutional refusal" to allow their children to transfer out of the district under the state's recently adopted school choice law.
The lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Little Rock, alleges the district missed the April 1 deadline to file for exemption from the law -- despite the law not being signed by Gov. Mike Beebe until April 16 -- and claims the school board used three outdated and irrelevant cases, "Harvell, et al. vs. Ladd, et al," "Franklin, et al. vs. Board of Education of the Blytheville School District No. 5, et al" and Brown vs. Board of Education, in its decision to opt out.
Act 1227, approved this year after a federal judge struck down a similar law, allows students to transfer out of their residential school districts. It has few limitations, but one is a provision that allows districts to exempt themselves because of desegregation concerns.
The lawsuit states that "Blytheville School District cannot use its past racial segregation as a reason to deny plaintiffs and their children the benefits of the education-reform measures established in 2013 by the Arkansas General Assembly."
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are James E. Stevenson III, Sharyn Stevenson, Heath Adkisson, Lori Adkisson, Ryan Braswell, Melissa Braswell, Oliver Coppedge, Tracy Coppedge, George A. Hale III, Stephanie Hale, Jeff Langston and Missy Langston -- several of whom serve in civil or elected roles in the community and all have a child or grandchild they wish to send to neighboring districts "to improve educational outcomes for their children." The group is being represented by Attorney Jess Askew III of Malvern.
Of the state's 239 school districts, 23 have declared exemptions under the law according to the Arkansas Department of Education. Blytheville is the only school district in Mississippi to have declared an exemption.
Blytheville Superintendent Richard Atwill was not available for comment at press time.
cpinkard@blythevillecourier.com