Federal desegregation lawsuit against St. Landry Parish schools dismissed

A desegregation lawsuit filed in May 1965 against the St. Landry Parish School Board was dismissed Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty.
Superintendent Edward Brown announced the end of the suit, Marilyn Marie Monteilh, et al, vs the St. Landry Parish School Board, at Thursday’s School Board meeting in Opelousas.
After the meeting, Courtney Joiner, School Board legal counsel, said, “It means they are not under the oversight of the federal courts. They are free to make decisions in accordance with state law.”
Mary Ellen Donatto, a Eunice School Board member, said the Board now is prohibited from taking any actions or making any policies that take race into consideration.
Removal of the order is going to bring change to the school system. Federal court directives included allowing majority to minority student transfers.
“It is going to impact us in all honesty because we were being held to certain things that we are no longer being held to,” he said.
“We could have lawsuits against us if we forced ourselves to remain under those orders,” she said.
Another Eunice Board member, Albert Hayes Jr., said, “Achieving unitary status is a goal that has been sought for the 50 years we’ve been under the desegregation order. It is my hope that going forward our system will be unitary and there will be no need to revisit the type of litigation that was necessary 50 years ago.”
Hayes said he is not sure it is time to celebrate the lifting of the desegregation order.
“For many years there has been a race basis for administrators in the whole parish,” he said. “So, now the system is free to choose the best person for the job regardless of race, sex, whatever.”
In 2011, Federal Judge Tucker Melancon outlined a five-year plan to end the desegregation case on July 1.
The School Board filed a motion on Aug. 5 asking the court to end its jurisdiction over the school district. There was no opposition to the Board’s request.
The school district has taken several actions resulting from the federal oversight.
The 2011 settlement included:
Creating a Magnet Academy of Biomedical Sciences at Opelousas High School;
Enforcement of attendance zones;
Encourage minority applicants to apply for employment;
Encourage desegregated student participation in the gifted and talented programs;
Offer the majority to minority transfers; and
Continue to operate the St. Landry Transition School.
According to The Acadiana Advocate, the board agreed to pay plaintiffs’ attorney Marion Overton White $800,000 for legal fees in the case.
In other business, the School Board awarded Fruge Lumber Co., of Eunice, a contract to build eight new classrooms at Leonville Elementary. Fruge had the low bid of $1,327,900. Improvements to Leonville Elementary are part of settling the desegregation lawsuit.