L.A.'S SCHOOL DISTRICT ADDED TO STATE LAWSUIT.Byline: Staff and Wire Services SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden - A judge on Thursday added 18 school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, to a lawsuit that charges the state is failing to provide adequate education to its students. 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. filed the suit last year against the state, accusing it of sidestepping its duty to guarantee students an equal public education. The state in turn filed a cross claim seeking to shift some blame to the 18 districts cited as examples in the suit. Superior Court Judge Peter Busch allowed that cross claim Thursday, meaning the districts and the state now are both official parties in the litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. . The LAUSD's general counsel, Hal Kwalwasser, said the district is ``happy to be part of the suit at one level, because we do think there's a significant question of whether there has been appropriate state support for various things we are obliged to do to help our kids.'' If the state had not filed the cross claim, Kwalwasser said, the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) would have sought to join the suit anyway because its outcome will ultimately affect the district. The ACLU ACLU: see American Civil Liberties Union. , however, had opposed the cross claim because it believes the problems are the responsibility of the state government. The judge, in approving the state's claim, said he was bound by laws that allow so-called cross complaints in lawsuits. |
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