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Mendez v. Westminster brought an end to segregation in O.C. schools and ultimately throughout the state and nation
Mendez's parents were appalled and sued the school district in what turned out to be a ground-breaking civil rights case that helped outlaw almost 100 years of segregation in California and was a precedent seven years later for Brown v. Board of Education. Segregation was standard practice in 1940s California, but it wasn't always the case. In 1855, the state legislature said school boards could not use public funds to educate non-white students. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Segregation of white and Negro children in the public schools of a State solely on the basis of race, pursuant to state laws permitting or requiring such segregation, denies to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors of white and Negro schools may be equal. -
Ruby Bridges Civil Rights Activist
Born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, Ruby Bridges was 6 when she became the first African-American child to integrate a white Southern elementary school, having to be escorted to class by her mother and U.S. marshals due to violent mobs. Bridges' bravery paved the way for continued Civil Rights action and she's shared her story with future generations in educational forums. -
Prayer to be said aloud in schools
The First Amendment against the enactment of any law "respecting an establishment of religion," which is made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment, state officials may not compose an official state prayer and require that it be recited in the public schools of the State at the beginning of each school day - even if the prayer is denominationally neutral and pupils who wish to do so may remain silent or be excused from the room while the prayer is being recited. -
Abington School District v. Schempp & Murray v. Curlett
On the 17th of June, 1963, the Court ruled 8-1 against of allowing the reciting of the Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer.
Justice Clark wrote at length in his majority opinion about the history and importance of religion in America, but his conclusion was that the Constitution forbids any establishment of religion, that prayer is a form of religion, and that hence state-sponsored or mandated Bible reading in public schools cannot be allowed. -
History of Indian Education
The 1972 Indian Education Act was the landmark legislation establishing a comprehensive approach to meeting the unique needs of American Indian and Alaska Native students. The unique aspects of the original authority have been retained through subsequent legislative reauthorizing statutes, with the latest revision occurring with the amendments made by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which reauthorized the program as Title VII Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. -
Wallace v. Jaffree – Case
Alabama statutes that by stages allowed voluntary prayer lead by public school teachers. Suggest that a moment of silence in a statute that includes the word prayer unconstitutionally endorses religion, while one that simply provides for a moment of silence does not, manifests hostility toward religion which is as much forbidden as is an official establishment of religion. -
EDWARDS, GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA, ET AL. v. AGUILLARD ET AL.
The Creationism Act forbids the teaching of the theory of evolution in public schools unless accompanied by instruction in "creation science." No school is required to teach evolution or creation science. If either is taught, however, the other must also be taught. Ibid. The theories of evolution and creation science are statutorily defined as "the scientific evidences for [creation or evolution] and inferences from those scientific evidences." -
Transgender students bathroom rights
The Obama administration said to the U.S. public schools that transgender students must be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice, upsetting Republicans and raising the likelihood of fights over federal funding and legal authority. Conservatives pushed back against the administration's non-binding guidance to schools, the latest battleground in the issue of rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. -
Texas judge blocks Obama's transgender bathroom directive
The temporary injunction signed by Judge Reed O'Connor follows a challenge to President Barack Obama's directive by 13 states and applies nationwide.
The injunction was passed the day before many students go back to school.
The right of transgender people to use bathrooms of their choice has become highly controversial in the US.
Judge O'Connor, who was appointed by George W Bush, said schools should have been allowed to have a say before the White House directive was issued.
