Judge Sets Hearing in MNPS Rezoning Lawsuit, More Plaintiffs to Step Forward

More plaintiffs are expected to step forward tomorrow in the NAACP’s lawsuit against Metro Schools and its recent rezoning plan.

Walter Searcy is chairman of the Nashville NAACP’s legal redress committee. He says the additional complaints show the school system can’t offer equal education if students are only zoned for neighborhood schools. Searcy says a school PTO in an affluent part of town wouldn’t allow students to go without books for three weeks of school, as was the case at John Early Middle.

“You begin to see the disparities economically. That’s why we want suburban kids in the inner city. We want inner city kids in the suburbs so the schools are in fact on equal footing.”

The federal court ruled Monday that the one plaintiff in the case could return to her old suburban school in Bellevue. North Nashville’s John Early was also forced to have textbooks in classrooms within 24 hours.

The court has now set an injunction hearing for September 16th for the larger allegations of re-segregation in the zoning plan.