Group moves to decertify class in decades-old deseg lawsuit

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A group of students and parents has filed a motion to decertify the class in the decades-old desegregation class-action lawsuit against the Kansas City School District.

The motion, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City by a group called Plaintiffs for African-Centered Education, PACE, is to decertify the plaintiff class because it doesn't serve the interests of children receiving African-centered education.

The motion also asks that the court, if it does not decertify the entire class, to create a subclass consisting of students at three Kansas City schools engaged in African-centered education. African-centered education is the idea of incorporating an African and African-American cultural orientation in public schools.

If the court does not decertify the class or create the subclass, then the group asks that Arthur A. Benson II be removed from his post as attorney for the plaintiff schoolchildren in the desegregation case, which dates back to 1977.

Benson is "too biased and too prejudiced against African-centered Education to adequately represent the interest" of the children in African-centered programs of the Kansas City School District, the motion reads.

Benson said he did not expect the motion to succeed in court.

"First, neither PACE nor the parents named in the motion are parties to the Kansas City School Desegregation case," Benson said. "And no parties may just walk off the street and ask the court to do things.

"Non-parties, including PACE and the parents, have no standing to file the motion, and I suspect the court will disregard it."

Benson said he was investigating the African-centered programs.

"We are investigating its effectiveness," Benson said. "We're open minded. And apparently these parents and this organization do not want its effectiveness to be investigated, and they're trying to stop that investigation."