ABCUSD: District ‘Did Not Violate California Voting Rights Act’

ABC Unified School District (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Brian Hews

The top official at the ABC Unified School District does not believe that they have violated the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 after a law suit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Wednesday.

Dr. Mary Sieu, Superintendent of the Cerritos-based public school system told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper in an interview that “our district does not believe that we have violated the California Voting Rights Act, and we are reviewing the law suit at this time.”

Sieu did not want to discuss specific details about the law suit but said that she was “initially surprised” to learn that the suit was filed.

On Wednesday, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund announced that they will be “joining” forces with the law firm Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho in the suit against the ABCUSD that contends that the school district “currently uses an at-large method to elect its Board of Trustees, which has denied Latino residents the opportunity to elect Board Members of their choice for more than fifteen years.”

A Special Meeting of the ABC Unified School Board of Education will be held next Tuesday, April 16, at 5 p.m. at the Districts headquarters located at Norwalk Boulevard and 166^th Street in Cerritos to specifically discus the matter.

The seven member Board will immediately go into a private “closed session” where it is expected that the item will be discussed with legal representatives from the District.

Sieu said that a public statement would be issued after the closed session if any “official decision or action is taken.”