BILINGUAL BAN GETS GREEN LIGHT; JUDGE REFUSES TO BLOCK LAUSD'S ENGLISH IMMERSION.Byline: Peter Hartlaub Daily News Staff Writer A federal judge Friday denied an 11th-hour attempt to stop the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) from implementing Proposition 227 next week, suggesting that instructors are ready to teach successfully under the new English New English n. See Modern English. immersion plan. Lawyers for two civil rights groups rushed to court Thursday, claiming the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. is woefully woe·ful also wo·ful adj. 1. Affected by or full of woe; mournful. 2. Causing or involving woe. 3. Deplorably bad or wretched: unprepared to educate non-English-speaking students under guidelines unveiled only two weeks ago. After hearing more than an hour of arguments Friday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird acknowledged that the district faces pitfalls, but declined to order administrators to scrap their plans. ``There is no question that the change is going to cause a considerable amount of disruption. Changes do,'' Baird said. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nonpartisan organization devoted to the preservation and extension of the basic rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution. of Southern California and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund were seeking little more than a delay. A lawsuit challenging the proposition itself is still under appeal. The new law calls for most non-English-speaking children to be placed in mainstream classes after a year of intense English instruction. To get what they wanted, the plaintiffs had to prove that students would be irreparably damaged by the LAUSD's implementation plan, set to begin in about 50 year-round schools Monday, with more than 150 more schools joining by the end of the month. Outside court, MALDEF MALDEF Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund attorney Thomas Saenz urged people to ``put the district under a magnifying glass'' and protest if they find blemishes in the system. ``Making it up as you go along is not the proper way to teach kids,'' said Saenz, who in court called the district's plan a ``skeletal outline.'' Only a few weeks ago, the LAUSD contributed a court brief to a lawsuit trying to stop Proposition 227 in a San Francisco-based federal court. But on Thursday, district lawyer Bradley Phillips insisted that administrators and teachers are qualified to meet the educational needs of students under the guidelines of the initiative. ``We wanted more time. We asked for it in the San Francisco court and we asked for it at the (state) Board of Education,'' Phillips said. ``(But) there is no evidence . . . that these students will not be receiving an education immediately on Monday, and in the ensuing weeks.'' Baird seemed to agree and bristled bris·tle n. 1. A stiff hair. 2. A stiff hairlike structure: the bristles of a wire brush. v. bris·tled, bris·tling, bris·tles v.intr. at Saenz's suggestion that teachers would be unable to teach under a program that is unfamiliar to them. ``I think you might not be giving the teachers the credit they're due,'' Baird said. Attorneys for MALDEF and the ACLU ACLU: see American Civil Liberties Union. said they might appeal or bring the motion to court again with more facts in a few weeks, but admitted that the battle lost this week was a crucial one. ``At this point, legally, nothing can be done before (Monday),'' Saenz said. |
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