Sunday, August 18, 1996

Rankin school administrators to fight LULAC lawsuit

By Associated Press

SAN ANGELO (AP) - A West Texas school district's administrators vow to fight a lawsuit filed by a Hispanic civil rights group over the election of school board members.

The Rankin Independent School District Board has seven members, but no minority representation.
However, administrators said that does not mean the district discriminates against minority students, as the League of United Latin American Citizens has contended.

"We have not discriminated against our children and have not violated the constitutional rights of our community," said Rankin ISD Board President Joe Loftin.

"We feel there are no grounds for (LULAC) to sue us," he said. "We have addressed the needs of all our children and the specialized needs of our minority community."

In its lawsuit, LULAC contends the way Rankin elects its trustees violates the civil rights of minorities, because it "unlawfully dilutes the voting strength of minority voters."
San Antonio attorney Rolando Rios said that if seven, single-member districts were drawn in Rankin, at least one - possibly two - minority districts would be created.

A federal judge in May determined that Roscoe ISD did not discriminate against Hispanics by the way it elected at-large board members from the community, rather than have community districts each choose a candidate.

Kent said on Friday the board members decided at their Tuesday night meeting to defend the lawsuit, one of several brought by LULAC officials.

"The decision was made by the board to defend the constitutional rights of the children, parents, patrons and taxpayers of the district," he said.

Rankin is 118 miles west of San Angelo.

District officials hired David Frishman of Katy to represent them in the lawsuit, as well as a partner attorney Bernard Brooks. Frishman recently was successful in defending the Roscoe school district in a similar suit.