LOUISVILLE Ky.
A lawyer’s request that Jefferson
County school officials be held in
contempt and put in jail was turned down Friday, before school district lawyers
even responded to the request.
U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II issued the ruling in
a case stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision that rejected the
use of race in assigning students to Louisville schools.
“Defendants need not respond to such an outrageous
motion, couched in such unprofessional language,” Heyburn wrote.
Attorney Teddy B. Gordon, who represented Louisville parent
Crystal Meredith in challenging the student assignment plan, said in filing his
request Thursday that he wants the current system scrapped immediately. He
asked the judge to allow about 2,800 students to change schools immediately.
Classes are scheduled to begin Aug. 13. The Supreme Court
ruling was issued June 28, and the district has since dropped race in making
individual assignments and is starting a new plan to come up with another
system.
But Gordon said the students already assigned for the
2007-08 school year should be given options to attend different schools and
that failing to do so violated the ruling. He asked the judge to hold
administrators and school board members in contempt and jail them if they
couldn’t show they complied with the ruling.
