South Gate Loses in Effort to Halt Students’ Transfer

The City of South Gate lost its initial bid in court Tuesday to halt the Los Angeles Unified School District’s plan to transfer about 250 students who would enter South Gate High School this fall to less crowded Jordan High in Watts.

Arguing that switching the classroom housing of what amounts to 600 or more students over a two- to three-year period is subject to state review under environmental impact laws, the city’s attorneys asked the court to order the school district to set aside its decision.

However, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John C. Cole found that under a state statute effective this year, the closing of a school or transfer of school pupils is exempt from rules requiring an environmental impact report.

Cole’s denial affected only the city suit’s first cause of action dealing with environmental impact. Two other causes of action alleging minority and educational discrimination remain to be dealt with in future hearings, probably not until after the start of school in the fall.

“The effect (of the court’s denial) is that in all likelihood, these kids are going to go to Jordan in the fall,” said John J. Wagner, one of the attorney’s representing South Gate.

Wagner said the students affected will be those who would have expected to enter South Gate High as ninth graders in September. The only students who live between Alameda Street and Long Beach Boulevard to be exempted are incoming students who have brothers or sisters already at South Gate.

The complaint alleges that the district acted with discrimination in declining to provide bungalows for the predominantly Latino students at overcrowded South Gate High.