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SUPERIOR COURT OF FULTON COUNTY STATE OF GEORGIA

MELVIN HARRIS, a minor, by and through

CHRISTOPHER HARRIS and DEBBIE HILL, his parents; QUARTEZ GOODMAN, a minor, by and through COKETHIA GOODMAN, his mother; MONTAVIOUS HOUSTON, a minor, by and through JOYCE HOUSTON, his legal guardian; DEVQUAN JONES, a minor, by and through JACQUELYN JONES, his mother; TERRANCE PARKS, a minor, by and through SANQUITA PARKS, his mother; JATOYA RUFF, a minor, by and through ANTOINETTE RUFF, her mother; REGINALD WEEMS, a minor, by and through ALGERNON WEEMS, his legal guardian; TERRY PATRICK WELCH, a minor, by and through PATTI WELCH, his mother; and all others similarly situated,

Plaintiffs,

v. ATLANTA INDEPENDENT SCHOOL SYSTEM;

CITY OF ATLANTA BOARD OF EDUCATION; BEVERLY L. HALL, in her official capacity as Atlanta School Superintendent; and COMMUNITY EDUCATION PARTNERS, INC.,

Defendants.

CIVIL ACTION FILE NO. _____

VERIFIED COMPLAINT

Pursuant to O.C.G.A. §§ 9-4-2, 9-5-1, and 23-1-1, the Plaintiffs and each of them, for

their claims against Defendants, and each of them, state and allege as follows:

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NATURE OF THIS ACTION

1. The Atlanta Independent School System (“AISS”) has contracted with

Community Education Partners (“CEP”) to run an alternative school (“the AISS-CEP School”).

The school — which is privately run but publicly accountable to the school district — does not

function as a school at all, but rather as a warehouse for poor children of color. Academics at the

school are virtually non-existent and students are inadequately supervised. Violence is rampant.

The school’s motto reflects its priorities: “Be Here, Behave, Be Learning.”

2. This is a civil rights class action brought pursuant to Article I, Section I,

Paragraphs I and XIII, and Article VIII, Paragraph I of the Georgia Constitution; the Fourth and

Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution; and the terms of the contract between

AISS and CEP, on behalf of all students currently enrolled or who will be enrolled in the AISS-

CEP School. Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief against Defendants AISS, the

Atlanta Board of Education, Beverly L. Hall, and CEP to prevent violations of Plaintiffs’ legal

rights and to remedy Defendants’ continuing failure to provide Plaintiffs with a constitutionally

adequate education, with appropriate due process and Fourth Amendment protections, and with

the services called for in the contract between AISS and CEP.

3. The Georgia Constitution guarantees a right to an adequate public education,

creating a property interest that cannot be taken away without due process of law. AISS

Defendants are obligated to provide an adequate education and may do so directly or via contract

with another party. In assuming the contract, CEP Defendants are accountable not only under

the terms of the contractual delegation, but also as state actors.

4. The relief Plaintiffs seek is supported by satisfactory proofs, including the public

records, facts and other documentation referenced throughout the Complaint.

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PARTIES

5. The Plaintiffs are as follows:

a. Plaintiff QUARTEZ GOODMAN is a 17 year old enrolled in the 8th

grade at the AISS-CEP School. After a series of suspensions at his regular school,

Quartez was referred to the AISS-CEP School and has been at the school for 3 years.

Although he received good grades prior to being referred to the school, he was forced to

repeat the 8th grade three times at the AISS-CEP School. He finally stopped attending

the school in September 2007 because of its chaotic environment and lack of educational

opportunity. If conditions at the school were fixed, he would gladly return. He appears

in this action by and through his mother, Cokethia Goodman.

b. Plaintiff MELVIN HARRIS is 14 years old and is enrolled in the 6th

grade at the AISS-CEP School. Melvin was a good student at his regular school, but in

2006 he was referred to the AISS-CEP School for cutting classes and misbehaving.

Although he was released in 2007, he was subsequently referred to the AISS-CEP School

a second time, and did not receive a hearing or other opportunity to be heard that time.

He has since repeated the sixth grade twice, has been the victim of violence at the school,

and is subjected to unreasonable searches each day he attends. Earlier this school year,

Melvin received a de facto 10-day suspension without proper notice or opportunity to be

heard when his parents were not permitted to timely re-enroll him after a 9-day

suspension. More recently, Melvin received a 3-day “bus suspension” along with all of

the other boys on his bus route with no opportunity to be heard. Because his family does

not own a car and cannot afford bus fare, the bus suspension effectively imposed an out-

of-school suspension. He appears in this action by and through his parents, Christopher

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Harris and Debbie Hill.

c. Plaintiff MONTAVIOUS HOUSTON is 14 years old and enrolled in the

8th grade at the AISS-CEP School. He was on the football and basketball teams at his

regular school and got good grades. He was referred to the school via a tribunal hearing

on or around November 19, 2007, but his great grandmother was told not to enroll him

until after the Thanksgiving holiday. On or around November 23, he was placed in

juvenile detention. Upon his release, on or around December 17, his great grandmother

was told that he could not be enrolled until after January 10. After the 10th, his great

grandmother was told that because orientation was full, he would have to wait until

January 22 and that no alternative arrangements were possible. Montavious ultimately

missed roughly two months of school. Since he has been at the AISS-CEP School, he has

suffered from the lack of educational opportunity, chaotic environment, and unreasonable

search procedures at the school. He appears in this action by and through his great

grandmother, Joyce Houston, who is also his legal guardian.

d. Plaintiff DEVQUAN JONES is a 16 year old 10th grader at the AISS-CEP

School. Devquan and his family moved to Atlanta in August 2007 from Blakely,

Georgia, where he attended regular school, got Bs and Cs, had never been left back or

received an out-of-school suspension, and was on the football team. His mother was

prevented from enrolling him in his neighborhood school in Atlanta by a series of

bureaucratic delays and requirements imposed by the Atlanta Board of Education.

Devquan was denied a public education for a month as she attempted to get him into

school. In September 2007, Devquan’s mother was informed that because he had missed

so many days of school, he would have to enroll at the AISS-CEP School. Devquan

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never received a hearing or any other opportunity to challenge that assignment. Since

attending the AISS-CEP School, Devquan’s academic performance has deteriorated and

he has been subject to unreasonable search practices. He also suffered an unprovoked

physical attack by a security guard, who slammed his head into a wall. His mother, who

was not notified by the school of the injury, was forced to take him to the hospital. He

appears in this action by and through his mother, Jacquelyn Jones.

e. Plaintiff TERRANCE PARKS is 15 years old and enrolled in the 8th

grade at the AISS-CEP School. He was referred to the school for an alleged violation of

a “student contract” that waived his right to a hearing prior to referral. No hearing was

ever held regarding the underlying contract violation or the referral to the AISS-CEP

School. Because orientation for the school takes place only on Mondays, Terrance was

out of school for a week. Terrance was subsequently arrested and handcuffed at the

school for possession of marijuana, which was found underneath the insole of sneakers he

had borrowed from a friend. He was placed in juvenile detention for 2 days and received

a 9 day out-of-school suspension. Although he ultimately received a tribunal hearing to

decide whether he would be expelled for the remainder of the year, he received no

opportunity to be heard prior to the 9 day suspension. Terrance also recently received a 3

day out-of-school suspension that was summarily imposed upon his entire class because

one student misbehaved. He appears in this action by and through his mother, Sanquita

Parks.

f. Plaintiff JATOYA RUFF is a 15 year old enrolled in the 8th grade at the

AISS-CEP School. After a brief stay in juvenile detention following an argument with

her mother, JaToya was informed by her regular school that she was criminally

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trespassing and would have to enroll at the AISS-CEP School. JaToya has not attended

the school since September 2007 because she is afraid of the unsafe conditions. She is

currently on leave from school because she recently gave birth, but she has not officially

withdrawn from the school and if she were to return to the educational system, she would

attend the AISS-CEP School. She appears in this action by and through her mother,

Antoinette Ruff.

g. Plaintiff REGINALD WEEMS is 15 years old and enrolled in the 8th

grade at the AISS-CEP School. He played football at his regular school and received

average grades. When he moved with his family from Decatur to Atlanta in March 2007,

he was summarily referred to the school without a hearing or other opportunity to be

heard, along with two of his siblings. Reginald had been unable to attend regular school

the previous month because of a series of deaths in his family and lack of money for

transportation. He was unable to enroll at the AISS-CEP School until May 2007, because

administrators said the school was full. In the fall of 2007, Reginald was arrested and

held for a month in juvenile detention. Although the charges were dismissed, his

grandmother was told he could not re-enroll at the AISS-CEP School until after the

holidays. In the beginning of January 2008, she was told he could not enroll until

January 22, because the school was full. On January 22, Reginald was not picked up by

the school bus and his grandmother was told he would have to wait until January 29.

Reginald missed at least 2 months of school. He appears in this action by and through his

grandmother, Algernon Weems, who is also his legal guardian.

h. Plaintiff TERRY PATRICK WELCH is 15 years old and a 10th grader at

the AISS-CEP School. He was referred to an alternative school in Douglasville for

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fighting, and his mother waived his right to a hearing because she was informed that if

she did not do so, her son would be expelled. After moving to Atlanta from Douglasville,

his mother attempted to enroll Terry in a regular school, but was told that he was required

to attend the AISS-CEP School because he had previously attended an alternative school.

Since then, Terry’s grades have dropped significantly, he has suffered from the violent

and chaotic environment at the school, and he has been subject to unreasonable search

practices. He has also received out-of-school suspensions without any notice or

opportunity to be heard. He appears in this action by and through his mother, Patti

Welch.

6. The defendants are as follows:

a. Defendant ATLANTA INDEPENDENT SCHOOL SYSTEM is charged

with establishing and maintaining the public schools by which the guarantees of Article

VIII, Section I, are to be met. The AISS-CEP School is one of the public schools under

the control and supervision of Defendant AISS.

b. Defendant CITY OF ATLANTA BOARD OF EDUCATION — which

consists of Brenda Muhammad, Khaatim Sherrer El, Cecily Harsch-Kinnane, Kathleen

Pattillo, LaChandra Butler Burks, Yolanda Johnson, Eric Wilson, Mark Riley, and

Emmett Johnson — is also charged with establishing and maintaining the public schools

in Atlanta by which the guarantees of Article VIII, Section I, are to be met. The AISS-

CEP School is one of the public schools under the control and supervision of Defendant

City of Atlanta Board of Education.

c. Defendant BEVERLY L. HALL is the Atlanta School Superintendent and

is sued in her official capacity. She is a resident of Atlanta, Georgia. She is appointed by

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the Atlanta Board of Education pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 20-2-101 and is responsible for

ensuring that schools in her district operate in compliance with the law. The AISS-CEP

School is one of the public schools under the control and supervision of Defendant Hall.

Defendant Hall is a signatory to the AISS-CEP Contract on behalf of AISS and is a final

policymaker for AISS.

d. Defendants Atlanta Independent School System, City of Atlanta Board of

Education, and Beverly L. Hall are referred to collectively as “AISS Defendants.”

e. Defendant COMMUNITY EDUCATION PARTNERS, INC. is a for-

profit entity incorporated under Delaware law, doing business in Atlanta, Georgia, whose

principal office is at 2636 Elm Hill Pike, Nashville, TN 37214. Its registered agent in

Georgia is the C T Corporation System, at 1201 Peachtree Street, NE, Atlanta, GA

30361. It has contracted with AISS to provide educational services for children referred

to alternative school in the Atlanta school district in exchange for $6.975 million a year.

JURISDICTION AND VENUE

7. This case arises under the Constitution and laws of the State of Georgia. This

Court has jurisdiction over this action pursuant to Article VI, § 1, ¶ 4 of the Georgia Constitution

and O.C.G.A. §§ 9-4-2, 23-1-1 and 23-3-1, which provide that the Court may issue declaratory

and equitable relief.

8. Venue in this County is appropriate under Art. VI, § 2, ¶¶ 3 and 6 of the Georgia

Constitution and under O.C.G.A. § 9-10-30, because this is a suit in equity for declaratory and

injunctive relief and because a majority of the defendants against whom substantial equitable

relief is prayed reside in this County.

9. Plaintiffs have no adequate remedy at law or access to any comprehensive

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administrative scheme that would adequately redress the grievances they bring in this complaint.

LAWSUIT PROPERLY MAINTAINED AS A CLASS ACTION

10. Plaintiffs bring this action as a class action pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 9-11-23.

11. The proposed class to be maintained in this action consists of all children

currently enrolled or who will be enrolled in the future at the AISS-CEP School. The

representatives of this class are Melvin Harris, Quartez Goodman, Montavious Houston,

Devquan Jones, Terrance Parks, JaToya Ruff, Reginald Weems, and Terry Patrick Welch.

12. The Plaintiff Class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impractical. At

any point in time, hundreds of students are enrolled at the AISS-CEP School.

13. There are questions of law and fact common to the members of the Plaintiff Class,

including, but not limited to:

a. Whether Defendants have an obligation to ensure that members of the

Plaintiff Class receive an adequate public education;

b. Whether Defendants’ policies and practices have resulted in the referral

and discipline of members of the Plaintiff Class to the AISS-CEP School without due

process;

c. Whether Defendants’ policies and practices of subjecting all students to

intrusive daily searches without individualized suspicion is unreasonable.

14. The claims of the Plaintiff Class representatives are typical of claims of the

putative class members and, by pursuing their own interests, the class representatives will

advance the interests of the absent class members.

15. The Plaintiff Class representatives will fairly and adequately protect the interests

of the class. There are no conflicts of interest between the class representatives and absent class

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members with respect to the matters at issue in this litigation; the class representatives will

vigorously prosecute the suit on behalf of the class; and the class representatives are represented

by experienced counsel. Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys employed by the American Civil

Liberties Union (“ACLU”), the ACLU of Georgia, and the ACLU Southern Regional Office,

nonprofit legal organizations whose attorneys have substantial experience and expertise in civil

rights and education reform matters.

16. Defendants have acted or failed to act on grounds generally applicable to all

Plaintiffs, necessitating declaratory and injunctive relief for the Class.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

I. Legal and Statutory Framework

17. Article VIII, Section I of the Georgia Constitution imposes on AISS Defendants

an obligation to provide every member of the Plaintiff class with an “adequate public education.”

The General Assembly of the State of Georgia has declared that it is the policy of this state to

assure that each school-age child in Georgia has access to quality instruction designed to support

student development of essential competencies in order that students may realize their potential.

O.C.G.A. § 20-2-131. With respect to alternative schools, the General Assembly has

specifically required that an environment be provided where students can stay in school and

acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for a productive life. Id.

18. Pursuant to Georgia law, an adequate public education must include: a safe

learning environment, a sufficient number of teachers and support staff, appropriate classroom

instruction and resources, appropriate support services, and basic record-keeping. See O.C.G.A.

§§ 20-2-131; 2-2-140 to 148; 2-2-735(c); & 2-2-737 to 738. See also GBOE Rule 160-4-8-.12.

19. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I,

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Section I, Paragraph I of the Georgia Constitution provide that no person may be deprived of life,

liberty, or property without due process of law.

20. Plaintiffs have a property interest in the adequate public education guaranteed to

them by the Georgia Constitution and may not be deprived of their right to such an education

without due process of law.

21. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section I,

Paragraph XIII of the Georgia Constitution protect Plaintiffs from unreasonable searches.

22. The AISS-CEP Contract requires CEP to operate the AISS-CEP School in

compliance with all applicable federal and state constitutional requirements and federal, state and

local laws, statutes, ordinances, rules, and regulations, and AISS policies and procedures.

II. AISS-CEP School Background

23. The AISS-CEP School is an Atlanta public alternative school located at 2930

Forrest Hills Drive SW, Atlanta, GA 30315, with an enrollment over the course of 2006-07 of

approximately 844 students. It serves both middle school and high school students, and has been

open since 2002.

24. Georgia law requires local school systems to provide an alternative education

program for disruptive students and notes that such programs “are intended to meet the education

needs of a student who is suspended from his or her regular classroom and also of a student who

is eligible to remain in his or her regular classroom but is more likely to succeed in a

nontraditional setting such as that provided in an alternative education program.” O.C.G.A. §

20-2-154.1. The instruction provided in such programs “shall enable students to return to a

general or career education program as quickly as possible.” Id.

25. The AISS-CEP School has an obligation to help students who were struggling in

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their regular schools to catch up academically and behaviorally with the goal of returning them

to the regular school system. Its failure to deliver on this obligation has transformed it into a

dumping ground for unwanted students.

26. Other alternative schools in the Atlanta metropolitan area serving similar student

populations include the McClarin Alternative School in Fulton County and the DeKalb

Alternative School in DeKalb County.

27. Prior to contracting with CEP, AISS operated several alternative programs for

students with behavioral and disciplinary problems: the Burger King Academy, the Opportunity

Center, the Therrell Academy, the Harper-Archer Academy, and the Phoenix Program. AISS

Defendants consolidated these programs into one school, and in 2002 granted CEP Defendants

the contract to run that school.

28. AISS entered into a First Amended and Restated Agreement with CEP on August

29, 2003; a Second Amended and Restated Agreement on September 3, 2004; and a Third

Amended and Restated Agreement on July 1, 2006 (“the AISS-CEP Contract”).

29. With these contracts — and at a cost to Atlanta taxpayers of $36,570,941 between

November 2002 and June 2007 — AISS delegated to CEP its obligation under Georgia law to

provide Atlanta schoolchildren with an adequate public education, and CEP accepted that

obligation.

30. The AISS-CEP Contract provides for base compensation of $6,975,000 for each

school year for an enrollment of up to 750 students. Additional students may be enrolled at

$51.67 per additional student per day. The contract requires AISS to use reasonable efforts to

enroll 750 students in the AISS-CEP School at all times. The contract also provides for payment

of an $89,000 “incentive fee” upon the attainment of enumerated performance goals.

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31. In exchange for this compensation, CEP Defendants agreed to provide a safe

learning environment, a sufficient number of teachers and support staff, appropriate classroom

instruction and necessary resources, appropriate support services, and basic record-keeping.

III. Plaintiffs are denied an adequate public education at the AISS-CEP School.

A. Some students are denied an education altogether for months at a time.

32. Defendants have an intentional policy and practice of referring students to the

AISS-CEP School but refusing to permit them to attend the school. Parents are sometimes told

they must wait until after “the holidays” have passed to register their children, even if their

children were referred in November. Parents are also sometimes told they cannot register their

children with the school because orientation sessions are full. No alternatives are made available

to these parents and their children, who receive no educational services whatsoever for months at

a time.

33. Upon information and belief, the wholesale denial of educational services has

taken place even when fewer than the 750 students contemplated by the AISS-CEP Contract are

enrolled at the school.

B. Violence at the AISS-CEP School exceeds any conceivably acceptable level.

34. The provision of an adequate education requires the provision of a safe education.

Georgia Board of Education Rule 160-4-8-.16 defines a persistently dangerous school as one in

which, during each of three consecutive years, at least two percent of the student population or

ten students (whichever is greater) are found by official action to have committed an offense in

violation of a school rule that involved drugs, felony weapons, or terroristic threats.

35. Although the AISS-CEP School is exempt from the Unsafe School Choice Option

provided by Georgia, it meets the definition of a persistently dangerous school, reporting 22

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qualifying offenses in 2005, 24 in 2006, and 12 in 2007. None of the other alternative schools in

the area serving similarly situated students would so qualify.

36. In addition to the most serious offenses that make the AISS-CEP School

persistently dangerous, the 2006 Georgia Department of Education Discipline Incident School

Summary Report lists 176 reported incidents of battery, 189 of fighting, 41 of threat or

intimidation, 79 of vandalism, 5 of knife possession, and 2 of firearm possession, as well as

1,202 other discipline incidents. The school had a reported enrollment of 415 students that year.

37. In 2006, the AISS-CEP School made 274 delinquency referrals to the Fulton

County Juvenile Court, or about two referrals for every three students. In contrast, the McClarin

School (with a student enrollment of 242) made 64 such referrals, or about two referrals per eight

students.

38. Of the 90 schools in the Atlanta Public Schools district reporting statistics to the

Georgia Department of Education (“GDOE”) in 2006, the AISS-CEP School alone accounted for

67.7% of all reported incidents of battery, 46% of all reported incidents of vandalism, and 20%

of all reported incidents of gun possession.

39. In 2006, the number of offenses per 100 students for the Atlanta Public School

system as a whole was 51.6. The rate for the AISS-CEP School was eight times higher, at 416.9.

The rate was 141.8 at the DeKalb Alternative School, and only 9.9 at the McClarin School.

40. The 2007 GDOE report for the AISS-CEP School lists a dramatically reduced

number of incidents: 5 incidents of battery, 3 of disorderly conduct, 28 of fighting, 4 of threat or

intimidation, and 63 other discipline incidents. Upon information and belief, Defendants did not

actually reduce levels of violence, but instead simply reported fewer incidents.

41. Other AISS data for that year show that 165 students received out-of-school

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suspensions in 2006-07, 93 students were suspended for 10 or more days, and 169 were

disciplined for crime/violence. The same data list 4 out-of-school suspensions for arson, 13 for

battery, 6 for disorderly conduct, 14 for fighting, 2 for threat/intimidation/assault, and 3 for

“weapons-knife.”

42. None of these reports reflects the violence inflicted upon students by teachers and

administrators. Teachers (and at least one administrator) routinely hit students, throw books, and

throw students against walls or to the floor. Nor do these reports reflect the violence inflicted by

school resource officers and police officers. Such officers are often physically aggressive, and

have a practice of using chokeholds on the students.

43. Georgia law requires that disruptive students assigned to alternative education

programs be separated from non-disruptive students, O.C.G.A. § 20-2-154.1, and that students

victimized by other students be permitted to transfer to another school within 10 school days of

the violent criminal offense, Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 160-4-8.16(2)(d). Defendants are in

violation of both requirements. As a result, the many non-violent students who are victimized by

other students at the AISS-CEP School must face their attackers every day.

C. The AISS-CEP School does not have a sufficient number of teachers and

necessary support staff.

44. The provision of an adequate public education requires that schools have a

sufficient number of qualified teachers and necessary support staff. The Georgia Department of

Education (“DOE”) recommends a maximum student-to-teacher ratio of 10:1 for alternative

education programs. The average across the entire Atlanta Public School System, which serves

children without any behavioral or other special needs, is 14:1.

45. The AISS-CEP School is not staffed with a sufficient number of qualified

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teachers or paraprofessionals. There are no tutors on staff. According to the 2006-07 State of

Georgia K-12 Report Card for the AISS-CEP School, the overall ratio of students to teachers was

roughly 20:1 that year, with only one full-time support person on staff. The teacher-to-support

person ratio was 11:1. Support personnel are defined to include special education personnel,

student services personnel, paraprofessional/teacher aides, librarians, teacher support specialists,

and lunchroom monitors.

46. While these figures indicate a comparatively low number of teachers per student

and an insufficient number of support staff, the AISS-CEP School possesses an abundance of

administrators, with a teacher-to-administrator ratio of 3:1.

47. Other alternative schools in the area serving similarly situated populations have

more teachers and support staff, and fewer administrators. At the DeKalb Alternative School,

the teacher-to-student ratio in 2006-07 was 1:7, the teacher-to-support person ratio was 7:1, and

the teacher-to-administrator ratio was 9:1. At the McClarin Alternative School in Fulton County

that year, the teacher-to-student ratio was 1:12, the teacher-to-support person ratio was 5:1, and

the teacher-to-administrator ratio was 8:1. Support personnel represent only 6.3% of staff at the

AISS-CEP School, but 16% at McClarin, and 11.5% at DeKalb.

48. Those other alternative schools also spend far more than the AISS-CEP School

does on teacher salaries, and allocate less money in their budgets to administrator salaries. For

example, in 2006-07, the McClarin School spent nearly twice as much as the AISS-CEP School

on teacher salaries and nearly $95,000 less than the AISS-CEP School on administrator salaries

for a smaller student enrollment.

49. Due to the lack of teachers, class sizes at the AISS-CEP School exceed those

permitted by the State Board of Education, which limits class sizes as of the 2007-08 school year

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to 18 students at an alternative program without a paraprofessional.

50. Teachers at the AISS-CEP school are largely inexperienced, averaging just 0.94

years of experience as of 2006-07. By contrast, teachers at the McClarin Alternative School

averaged 19.07 years of experience and teachers at the DeKalb Alternative School averaged

10.58 years.

D. The AISS-CEP School provides little or no classroom instruction or

resources necessary for teaching and learning.

51. Georgia law requires that alternative education programs include objectives of

the Quality Core Curriculum and provide instruction that enables students to return to regular

education as soon as possible. O.C.G.A. § 20-2-154.1. Georgia DOE Rule 160-4-8-.12

additionally requires that course credit be earned in the same manner as in other education

programs. And the Georgia DOE’s alternative education program guidelines further require that

the instructional materials provided be the same as as those supplied in the regular school

program.

52. Students at the AISS-CEP School spend the majority of their time in class filling

out worksheets without teaching, supervision, or feedback. It is the rare teacher who provides

actual lessons, in which information is conveyed by teachers to students. There is functionally

no curriculum. Class times vary, but many are short even by alternative school standards.

53. Students from as many as three different grades are often combined, all working

on the same worksheets.

54. It is the school’s policy not to assign homework. Students are not permitted to

take books home, or to bring school supplies to and from school. Many teachers simply sit in

their classrooms, sometimes on a cell phone or computer, while students fill out worksheets.

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Most teachers do not return completed worksheets to students or provide other feedback.

55. AISS-CEP School staff conducts no individualized review of student records to

address students’ specific needs or develop individualized academic plans. Students who

struggle academically receive no guidance. Students who are not struggling quickly become

bored.

56. To the extent tests are administered, preparation is nearly impossible because

students cannot take their textbooks home. The rule against homework and the ban on taking

school materials home deprive students of the opportunity to develop good study habits.

57. Defendants have failed to ensure that students have the materials necessary for

learning. Many textbooks at the school are missing pages or otherwise damaged. Some

teachers never hand out textbooks. There are no supplementary materials or teaching aids.

There is no library.

58. Students at the AISS-CEP School have no extracurricular activities, or art, music,

and physical education classes. Instead, students are randomly and periodically released into the

schoolyard with no meaningful supervision.

E. The AISS-CEP School relies inappropriately on the Programmed Logic for

Automated Teaching Operation (“PLATO”) Program.

59. Rather than providing classroom instruction and benchmarking student

achievement with the standardized tests used in other Georgia schools, Defendants rely heavily

on computer programs marketed by a company called PLATO for assessment and instruction.

60. PLATO’s own manuals recommend active guidance of students using the

programs and studies have shown the programs to be of limited value without adequate staff

training and supervision.

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61. Defendants fail to provide the supervision necessary for PLATO to be effective or

its test results accurate. Students work with minimal supervision and often ask each other for the

correct answers to reach the next level of questions. Many students do not work on the programs

at all, but rather play computer games.

62. Sometimes there are not enough computers for all the students. Those without

computers sit at empty desks.

F. The AISS-CEP School fails to provide students with the support services to

which they are entitled.

63. The provision of an adequate public education requires that certain support

services be available. Georgia law requires alternative education programs to provide

appropriate supervision and counseling. O.C.G.A. § 20-2-154.1; GBOE Rule 160-4-8-.12.

Georgia DOE guidelines also note that such programs should customize intervention programs

and support services to meet the needs of individual students.

64. Defendants have failed to ensure that the AISS-CEP School provides access to the

services students need. Students lack adequate access to guidance counselors, psychologists,

social workers, and career counselors.

65. Students who struggle academically or have behavioral issues, i.e., the majority of

those enrolled at the AISS-CEP School, are supposed to receive support from student support

teams (“SST”). Of 127 students represented by the Fulton County Juvenile Court Educational

Advocate between August 2004 and August 2007, 60 had never had an SST intervention.

66. Students with personal, home, school, or community adjustment issues lack

access to a social worker. Although the school currently has one social worker/therapist on staff,

20

the vast majority of students with such issues receive no services at all.

67. Defendants have failed to offer appropriate social/discipline skills instruction or a

discipline management and behavioral development program to students at the AISS-CEP

School. Although the school does offer an anger management class to some students, it is only

20 minutes long, is offered only once a week, and attendance is optional.

G. Record-keeping at the AISS-CEP School is so lax that the school cannot

provide an adequate public education.

68. Basic record-keeping is essential to the provision of adequate educational

services. GBOE Rule 160-4-8-.12 requires school systems to maintain records on enrollment,

disciplinary referrals, grades, pass rates, and entry/exit dates.

69. Defendants have failed to maintain these records accurately. Attendance records

often fail to reflect the extent to which students are truant. The course list does not accurately

reflect the educational opportunities actually available. Grades are given out haphazardly.

H. Although Defendants have long been on notice about the failure of the AISS-

CEP School to provide an adequate public education, they have done nothing to

improve the quality of the education provided.

70. AISS Defendants were well aware of the possibility that the AISS-CEP School

would be nothing more than a dumping ground for unwanted children before they ever signed

the contract.

71. Between 2004 and 2006, AISS Defendants were aware or should have been aware

of the AISS-CEP School’s failure to provide an adequate education. For example, a series of

articles in the Atlanta Voice in September-November 2004 highlighted problems at the school,

21

and included an acknowledgement by the then-principal that students did not receive homework

or books to take home as a matter of school policy.

72. Nevertheless, on July 1, 2006, AISS Defendants renewed the contract with CEP

Defendants for another three years, until June 30, 2009, with terms that renew the contract for

five years at a time.

73. The AISS-CEP School moved to a new building in the fall of 2007, but the

educational services provided remain grossly inadequate.

74. Defendants have failed to take any actions to lift the school out of its designation

as in need of “school improvement” and “corrective action.”

75. After 2002-03, the first year the school failed to make Annual Yearly Progress

(“AYP”), school administrators failed to develop a school plan incorporating strategies based in

scientific research or to adopt policies promoting achievement by designated subgroups, as

required by law. 20 U.S.C. § 6312(b); see also Ga. Comp. R & Regs. 160-7-1-.04(2).

76. In 2003-04, although the school was identified as in need of “school

improvement,” Defendants failed to inform parents of developments over the course of the

school improvement process, about the reasons for identification for corrective action, how

parents might help, details concerning the transfer option, and instructions on how to obtain

supplemental educational services. 34 C.F.R. § 200.37.

77. Defendants did not provide students with the option of transferring to a non-

failing school, much less offer that option first to the lowest-achieving children from low-income

families, as federal law requires. Nor did they provide required supplemental services.

78. To this day, parents remain uninformed about the need for corrective action, about

22

remedial steps the school has taken, and about their children’s right to transfer or supplemental

services.

79. Although, in 2004-05, the school was designated as in need of “corrective action,”

Defendants failed to take the remedial steps required by law, e.g., replacing school staff relevant

to the failure, implementing a new curriculum, decreasing authority at the local level, appointing

an outside expert, extending the school year or day, or restructuring the school. 20 U.S.C. §

6316.

80. The 2006 GDOE AYP Report for the AISS-CEP School identifies it as in Needs

Improvement Year Three. Although the report indicates that the school offers school choice and

supplemental educational services and has developed and implemented a corrective action plan,

none of these things has actually occurred, and the report provides no evidence of specific

actions taken to address the school’s repeated failure to make AYP.

IV. Plaintiffs are subjected to daily violations of their Fourth Amendment rights.

81. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section I,

Paragraph XIII of the Georgia Constitution protect children in school from unreasonable

searches.

82. In a typical search, students must remove their shoes (which are themselves

searched), turn their pockets inside out into “bunny ears,” walk through a metal detector, and

submit to a pat-down that includes the soles of their feet and sometimes requires them to be

spread-eagled against a wall. All students must also lift their shirts up to their necks, exposing

their stomachs and, for girls, their bras. Students who set off the metal detector must submit to a

pat-down underneath their shirts.

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83. Female students are subjected to the further indignity of having their scalps patted

down and of being prohibited from bringing in feminine hygiene products. Menstruating girls

must ask their teachers for sanitary pads.

84. Watches, jewelry and purses are not permitted. Students are allowed to bring

money to school, but not more than five dollars. Items deemed “contraband” by the Student

Search Procedures protocol include book bags, combs, brushes, and house keys. The school also

coordinates random searches of the building by police dogs.

85. The search process is so lengthy that although students arrive at the school at 9

a.m., classes do not start until 10 a.m. — and students are often still waiting to be searched even

then.

86. Students who are friendly with the search teams are permitted to bring

“contraband” items into the school, like MP3 players and playing cards.

87. Students are only permitted to go to the bathroom a maximum of three times per

day. While walking down the hall, students must put their hands behind their backs or in their

pockets.

88. These highly invasive searches are not based on individualized suspicion, and are

neither reasonable nor necessary.

V. Plaintiffs suffer from violations of their due process rights.

A. Plaintiffs are sent to the AISS-CEP School without appropriate notice or

opportunity to be heard.

89. Because the Georgia Constitution guarantees Plaintiffs a free and adequate public

education, Plaintiffs have a property interest in such an education that Defendants may not

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deprive them of absent fundamentally fair procedures. The education available to students at the

AISS-CEP School is vastly inferior to that available at other Atlanta schools, and falls far below

the minimum requirements of state law. See Section III, supra. Plaintiffs’ assignment to the

AISS-CEP School accordingly constitutes a deprivation of education similar to a suspension or

expulsion. Before any such deprivation may occur, Plaintiffs are entitled to notice and an

opportunity to be heard.

90. Defendants have failed to ensure that students referred to the AISS-CEP School

receive appropriate due process. Students are routinely referred to the school without any

process at all, such as an opportunity to be heard at a tribunal hearing.

91. Some students are inappropriately referred for disciplinary reasons without a

tribunal hearing because they signed student contracts waiving their right to contest a referral.

Such students receive no notice or opportunity to be heard even with respect to whether they

committed the underlying offense for which they are held in violation of the contract.

92. Students referred to the school for administrative reasons fare even worse. Many

are summarily transferred to the AISS-CEP School, despite not having violated any code of

conduct, simply because they are new to the school district. During the 2005-06 school year,

30% of the students assigned to CEP were sent for non-disciplinary reasons.

93. Students who are referred for non-disciplinary reasons do not receive a review of

the strategies and interventions used by the referring school to address instructional and

behavioral issues as required by the Georgia Board of Education.

94. None of the students referred to the school is assessed to determine their specific

needs, whether they have academic, medical, emotional, behavioral, physical or other concerns

25

that may interfere with their ability to benefit from appropriate educational interventions, or

whether the AISS-CEP School will address their needs.

B. Plaintiffs are denied appropriate due process protections when they are

prevented from attending the AISS-CEP School for administrative reasons.

95. As discussed supra at Section IIIA, Defendants have an intentional policy and

practice of referring Plaintiffs to the AISS-CEP School but not permitting them to attend the

school, sometimes for months at a time. These Plaintiffs are denied an education altogether

without any notice or opportunity to be heard.

C. Plaintiffs are denied appropriate due process protections when they are

disciplined at the AISS-CEP School.

96. The United States and Georgia Constitutions require that students who suffer

significant disciplinary action that disrupts their education must receive notice and an

opportunity to be heard. Georgia law also requires that school discipline be meted out in

proportion to the behavior it is intended to punish. O.C.G.A. § 20-2-735.

97. Defendants have failed even to maintain records that would indicate whether

discipline at the school is meted out properly. Discipline is routinely imposed without any

record-keeping to document the precipitating incident, the procedures followed, or the discipline

meted out.

98. Defendants have failed to track crimes occurring at the school. For example, the

school reported no crimes for the 2004-05 school year but referred 358 students to the juvenile

justice system in 2004-05. See also Section VII, supra.

99. To the extent that records are maintained at the school, they are often grossly

26

inaccurate. For example, one student’s guardian noted that she often receives calls from the

school asking her to pick her child up — only to receive papers later on stating that the child was

“removed at parent’s request.”

100. Defendants have failed to ensure that parents are notified when their children are

victimized by other students, or when disciplinary citations are issued.

101. Students are routinely suspended and immediately sent home without any advance

notice to their parents or written explanation. Such students are left to go home unsupervised.

102. Students are routinely suspended for more than 10 days at a time, or for more than

10 days cumulatively over the course of a year, without proper notice or opportunity to be heard.

103. Some Plaintiffs receive bus suspensions without any meaningful notice or

opportunity to be heard. Defendants have collectively punished entire busloads of students by

imposing blanket suspensions on the basis of allegedly disruptive behavior by a small subset of

passengers. For students whose families are unable to provide alternative means of

transportation, this amounts to an out-of-school suspension.

104. AISS procedure requires that students accused of committing serious violations of

the Student Code of Conduct be referred to the Student Disciplinary Tribunal. The tribunal is to

listen to the accused student, witnesses, and the school administrator to determine whether there

was in fact a code violation. Defendants have failed to ensure that this occurs.

105. The Georgia Code also provides guidelines on how discipline is to be meted out

with appropriate due process protections. For example, while teachers may remove consistently

disruptive students from their classrooms, any teacher doing so must file a report with the

principal or his designee describing the student’s behavior by the beginning of the following

27

school day. Within one school day of the removal, the principal or designee must send the

student’s parents written notice that the student was removed, along with a copy of the teacher’s

report. The principal or designee must discuss the removal with the student and teacher by the

beginning of the following day and must notify the student of the reasons for removal. The

student must have an opportunity to present evidence explaining the situation from her

perspective. Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-738. Defendants have failed to follow these procedures.

106. Under Georgia law, when a student is alleged to have violated the Student Code

of Conduct and the principal recommends expulsion or a suspension of more than ten days, the

student has a right to a hearing after reasonable notice. The hearing must be held no later than

ten school days after the suspension begins, unless parents and school officials agree to an

extension. All parties must be able to present and respond to evidence, cross-examine witnesses

on all unresolved issues, and access a verbatim electronic or written record of the proceedings.

Ga. Code Ann. §§ 20-2-754, 20-2-1160.

107. Within ten days after reviewing all the evidence presented at such a hearing, the

disciplinary entity must render a written decision based exclusively on this evidence. The

decision may be appealed to the local board of education within twenty days. In the case of an

appeal, all parties have the right to be represented by legal counsel. The local board of education

must review the record and render a written decision based solely on the record within ten days.

Defendants have failed to ensure that any of these procedures are followed.

108. The Georgia Department of Education has issued a progressive discipline model

for use by middle and high schools. The model divides discipline into four graduated levels.

Whenever Level Two type discipline is imposed, including in-school suspensions of up to five

days and out-of-school suspensions of up to three days, behavioral support services are to be

28

provided. When Level Three discipline is imposed, including full-day in-school suspensions of

up to fifteen days and out-of-school suspensions of up to five days, the model directs that the

principal confer with the student and parent, that behavior support services be provided, and that

federal and state due process requirements be followed. For Level Four type discipline,

including in-school suspensions of up to thirty days, out-of-school suspensions of up to ten days,

and expulsions for up to one year, the model notes that the principal must confer with the student

and parent. Defendants have failed to ensure that these procedures are followed.

109. Children who are expelled are often expelled summarily, without adequate notice

or opportunity to be heard, and are sometimes even expelled in absentia.

VI. CONSEQUENCES SUFFERED BY PLAINTIFFS

110. Plaintiffs suffer irreparable harm or are at imminent and serious risk of suffering

such harm because of Defendants’ failure properly to supervise and administer the AISS-CEP

School.

111. Many children become victims of violence at the school; some become so fearful

that they stop attending school altogether. One child is terrified to go to school because he has

repeatedly been threatened with rape by older students. Those who remain often find it

impossible to learn because of the violent atmosphere.

112. The teaching staff and curriculum at the AISS-CEP School are so inadequate that

students at the school make little or no academic progress even though many are enrolled for

periods in excess of 180 days.

113. The AISS-CEP School has not once made AYP as measured by the No Child Left

Behind Act (“NCLB”). For each of the last five years, it has been designated as “Needs

Improvement.” In 2007, it was placed in the “Corrective Action” category.

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114. The school also has failed to achieve the 95% participation rate called for by

federal law. In 2002-03, the participation rate for students taking Georgia’s statewide Criterion-

Referenced Competency Tests (“CRCT”) was 84% in reading and 87% in math. In 2006-07, the

participation rate was 84% in reading and 87% in math.

115. In 2006-07, 65.8% of test-taking students failed to achieve proficiency in reading

and 91.1% of students failed to achieve proficiency in math. According to the 2006-07 Report

Card, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards across all subjects that year was

less than 23%, reflecting a gain over the prior year of just 1.47%.

116. For comparison, 55% of students at the DeKalb Alternative School met or

exceeded standards in 2006-07, reflecting a gain of roughly 19% over the prior year. Even at the

McClarin Alternative School, where percentages declined by nearly 20%, close to 54% of

students still met or exceeded expectations in 2006-07.

117. The 2006-07 Report Card for the AISS-CEP School provides more detail:

a. Ninety-six percent of 6th graders taking the Criterion-Referenced

Competency Test (“CRCT”) failed to meet standards in math or science, exactly the same

as the year before, and not a single female student met expectations in math;

b. Eighty-nine percent of 7th graders taking the CRCT failed to meet

standards in math; 91% failed in science; and 71% failed in reading;

c. Seventy-one percent of 8th graders taking the Eighth Grade Writing

Assessment were below target;

d. Eighty-eight percent of 9th graders taking the Ninth Grade Literature and

Composition test failed; 96% failed the Algebra I test; 92% failed the Biology test; and

not a single student passed the Geometry or Physical Science tests.

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118. Nor did Defendants meet even the basic performance improvements they sought

between the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years. Defendants called for a decrease by two

percentage points in the proportion of students not meeting the standard on the Reading CRCT,

but the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (“GAOSA”) figures indicate that the failure

rate among 6th graders actually rose from 71% to 73%, and the rate among 7th graders rose from

56% to 78%. Likewise, Defendants called for a three percentage point increase in the proportion

of students scoring 70 or above on the End of Course Test (“EOCT”) in 9th grade literature, but

whereas 25% passed that test in 2004-05, only 2% did the following year.

119. In contrast, in 2006-07 at the DeKalb Alternative School, 49% of 6th graders met

or exceeded expectations on the Reading CRCT; 65% of students taking the Georgia High

School Writing Test passed; 77% of students taking the GHSGT passed the English test; and

55% passed the GHSGT in math.

120. Graduation rates at the AISS-CEP School also indicate that the school is failing to

provide its students with an adequate education. Not a single student at the school made it to

senior year in 2006-07, and there was only one senior in 2005-06 — a decline from the 32 the

school had in 2004-05. Only 7 students sat for the Georgia High School Graduation Test in

2006-07, an increase from 1 student the year before, but a decline from the 17 tested in 2004-05.

In other words, even when children are retained at the AISS-CEP School for years at a time, the

school still fails to educate them sufficiently even to sit for the GHSGT, much less to graduate.

121. At the DeKalb Alternative School, there were 20 eleventh graders in the spring of

2007 and 15 twelfth graders — 14 of whom completed high school. More than 100 students

completed high school at the McClarin Alternative School in Fulton County in 2006-07.

122. Record-keeping at the AISS-CEP School is so lax that some students have been

31

forced to repeat a grade because they were assigned to the wrong grade upon entering the school

and the error was never corrected.

123. Plaintiffs suffer repeated Fourth Amendment and due process violations.

124. Plaintiffs are also deprived of their right to be educated by Defendants’ policies

and practices that have the effect of pushing them out of the AISS-CEP School.

125. Attendance rates at CEP have been extremely low since the school’s inception

and Defendants have done little to improve them. In the 2002-03 school year, 35.5% of all

students were absent for more than 15 days. That number rose to 37.8% in 2007. By

comparison, in the Atlanta school system as a whole, only 4.6% of students were absent for 15

days or more in 2007.

126. Defendants called for improvements in attendance rates in the contract, but the

GAOSA report card indicates that while 67% of students were absent 6 days or more in 2004-05,

74.5% were absent that frequently the following year.

127. The school’s failure to keep proper records suggests that even these attendance

rates may be artificially inflated.

128. Students who attend the school are subject to an extraordinarily high rate of

suspensions. Over the course of the 2006-07 school year, there were 165 out-of-school

suspensions, 93 of which were for 10 or more days. If each of these 165 suspensions were given

to a different child, one out of every five of the 844 total enrolled students at the school that year

would have received an out-of-school suspension. Twenty students received out-of-school

suspensions for disruption, 3 for disrespectful behavior, and 9 for unauthorized items. One child

was suspended for 10 or more days for “chronic problem studying.”

129. Suspensions are imposed on some students in order to compel their parents to

32

withdraw them from the school. One student’s probation officer was told by the principal that

the school was repeatedly suspending the child because it lacked the resources to deal with him,

and that his mother should withdraw him from school. Parents of suspended children must re-

enroll their children in person during normal school hours and are often kept waiting for hours

before being permitted to do so.

130. Those students who continue to attend school are subject to Defendants’

intentional policy and practice of inappropriately referring students to the juvenile justice system.

In 2006-07, the school referred 165 students to juvenile court, with an average of 4.17 charges

per child. With a total enrollment that year of 844, the school referred nearly one out of every

five students. Eighty-four students were referred once, and 81 students at least twice. Twenty-

nine students faced 8 or more charges. More than a fifth of all charges brought were dismissed.

131. In contrast, the similarly sized McClarin School made only 31 referrals to juvenile

court in 2006-07.

132. Many of the AISS-CEP students being referred to the juvenile justice system are

being referred for offenses that in other schools are dealt with in the principal’s office. Roughly

30% of the students referred to juvenile court by the AISS-CEP School in 2006-07 were referred

for public order offenses, like disrupting school or disorderly conduct, compared to only 18% of

juveniles charged statewide in 2006. While far more likely than juveniles statewide to be

charged with public order offenses, AISS-CEP students are far less likely to be charged with

status offenses (14.1% of referrals compared to 27.1% statewide), property offenses (9.3% of

referrals compared to 26.2%), traffic offenses (3.2% compared to 10.3%), and sex offenses

(0.3% compared to 3.6%). They are equally (10%) as likely to be charged with drug offenses

and slightly less likely to be charged with violent offenses (17.3% compared to 18.6%).

33

133. According to the 2006-07 GAOSA Report Card, dropout rates for the AISS-CEP

School are five times higher than in AISS generally, with roughly one in five students dropping

out. In the 2006-07 year, more than 38% of the students enrolled “left early.” Nearly 95% of

those “leaving early” were male.

134. Those students who are not expelled, referred to the juvenile justice system, or

pressured into dropping out rarely make it back to regular schools. Defendants’ intentional

policies and practices routinely keep children at the school for longer than the 90 to 180 days of

attendance contemplated by the AISS-CEP Contract, for longer than their referrals require or for

longer than is educationally appropriate. Some children are retained at the school for no

pedagogical reason whatsoever but only because of inaccurate record-keeping. Many fall too far

behind academically while at the AISS-CEP School to be able to catch up at regular school.

135. Failure to grant Plaintiffs the relief requested herein will result in continued and

irreparable harm.

COUNT I

DEFENDANTS HAVE FAILED TO PROVIDE PLAINTIFFS WITH AN ADEQUATE PUBLIC EDUCATION — GA. CONST. ART. VIII, § I, PARA. I.

136. Plaintiffs adopt and incorporate herein by this reference the above paragraphs 1

through 134.

137. AISS Defendants are obligated under Article VIII of the Georgia Constitution to

provide Plaintiffs with an adequate public education.

138. Federal law, state law, Georgia Department of Education guidelines, and AISS’s

own internal guidelines provide clear indicators of what constitutes an adequate public

education. As set forth herein, AISS Defendants have failed to ensure that the AISS-CEP School

34

provides an adequate education to its students by any possible measure.

139. Defendants’ failure violates Plaintiffs’ state constitutional rights by depriving

Plaintiffs of an adequate education while they are at the AISS-CEP School. Plaintiffs have

suffered harm as a result and are entitled to obtain declaratory and injunctive relief.

COUNT II

DENIAL OF DUE PROCESS RIGHTS – U.S. CONST. AMEND. XIV; GA. CONST. ART. I, § I, PARA. I; 42 U.S.C. § 1983

140. Paragraphs 1 through 134 are hereby incorporated by reference.

141. Defendants’ intentional practices and polices of referring Plaintiffs to the AISS-

CEP School and of imposing discipline on Plaintiffs without notice and opportunity to be heard

violate Plaintiffs’ due process rights. The United States Constitution, the Georgia Constitution,

the Georgia Code, the Georgia Board of Education rules, and AISS internal guidelines shed

additional light on Plaintiffs’ due process rights with respect to referral to the school and

discipline imposed while at the school. The Fourteenth Amendment violation also entitles

Plaintiffs to obtain declaratory and injunctive relief and attorneys’ fees, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §

1983.

COUNT III

DENIAL OF RIGHT TO BE FREE FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES — U.S. CONST. AMEND. IV; GA. CONST. ART. I, § I, PARA. XIII; 42 U.S.C. § 1983

142. Paragraphs 1 through 134 are hereby incorporated by reference.

143. Defendants’ intentionally adopted search policies and practices at the AISS-CEP

School are both unnecessary and unreasonable. These policies and practices violate Plaintiffs’

right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment to the

United States Constitution and Article I, Section I, Para. XIII of the Georgia Constitution. The

35

Fourth Amendment violation in turn provides Plaintiffs with the right to obtain declaratory and

injunctive relief and attorney fees, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983.

COUNT IV

BREACH OF CONTRACT

144. Paragraphs 1 through 134 are hereby incorporated by reference.

145. CEP Defendants have breached the AISS-CEP Contract by failing to provide the

vast majority of the services the contract obligates them to provide. AISS Defendants have

failed to take any steps whatsoever to enforce the terms of the contract and instead have extended

the contract despite being on notice of CEP Defendants’ material breaches.

146. Georgia Code § 9-2-20(b) provides that the beneficiary of a contract made

between other parties for his benefit may maintain an action against the promisor on the contract.

147. Plaintiffs are the beneficiaries of the contract between AISS and CEP.

148. Section 11.11 of the contract, which claims the contract is for the sole benefit of

CEP and AISS and is not intended to confer any rights or benefits upon any third parties, is void

because it violates public policy.

149. Defendants included Section 11.11 in the contract in an effort to exclude the very

children they are responsible for educating. To permit Defendants to use Section 11.11 to

insulate themselves from legal challenge brought by the very students harmed by Defendants’

gross failure to provide even a minimally adequate education would seriously injure the public

interest.

150. Because AISS contracted out to CEP its obligation to provide an adequate

education to Plaintiffs, Plaintiffs bring this litigation to enforce the terms under which AISS’s

obligations were contracted to CEP.

36

151. Provisions of the contract Defendants have materially breached include:

Section 3.2B requires that CEP use the Georgia Performance Standards to review student

records and to determine each student’s specific course needs for development of an

individualized academic plan; that all components of the PLATO Learning System provided by

CEP are to be aligned with the Georgia Performance Standards; and that CEP will offer the

School District/GDOE approved courses in English language arts/reading, mathematics, science,

and social studies/history, as well as any other courses that may be required for grade promotion

or graduation and consistent with the requirements of the Georgia High School Graduation

Guidelines

152. Section 3.2E requires that CEP employ a sufficient number of Highly Qualified

Teachers and Highly Qualified Paraprofessionals and comply with the Georgia teacher-student

staff ratio for alternative education programs.

153. Section 3.2F requires CEP to provide adequate equipment and supplies for a

recreational program consistent with the AISS’s current programs.

154. Section 3.3A requires that CEP provide all instructional materials, technology and

software required to deliver the CEP Program, as well as the instructional and administrative

employees necessary to administer the education program.

155. Section 3.3B states that instruction at the AISS-CEP School shall include the

essential knowledge and skills, based on the Georgia Performance Standards, necessary to

achieve course completion or course credit.

156. Section 3.3E requires that CEP provide students subject to expulsion the same

procedural due process as utilized by AISS for all other students. It requires that CEP follow all

applicable federal and state laws and statutes and Board policies and regulations in relation to

37

classroom management and discipline and states that disciplinary due process standards set forth

in the Board’s Policy are to be complied with.

157. Section 3.2G requires CEP to maintain records on student enrollment, attendance,

courses offered, number of students served, courses completed, transcripts and student report

cards in accordance with AISS practices. The contract also requires CEP to establish the

instructional hours of the school day to record absences in order to determine attendance for all

grades using accepted attendance accounting procedures as promulgated by the State.

158. Section 4.2 requires CEP to provide all specific textbooks and teacher’s editions,

resource kits, and library and media materials necessary.

159. Section 7.3 requires that Defendants agree upon a transition program to support

and monitor each student’s return to regular school and to implement a longitudinal tracking

program for such students.

160. Section 9.2 requires that CEP ensure that all students are provided a research-

based instructional program that is aligned with the Georgia Performance Standards; that student

progress for long-term referrals of 90 days or more be assessed by comparing each student’s

previous school district attendance, behavior, and performance in core content subjects to

attendance, behavior, and performance in core content subjects while at the AISS-CEP School;

and that at least 95% of all actively enrolled students participate in the state and locally mandated

assessments.

161. Section 9.3 sets out an “Academic Advancement Guarantee,” under which all

students who are in attendance at the school for 120 days or more are to make a one-year

advancement in grade level skills performance in reading and/or mathematics.

38

COUNT V

VIOLATION OF QUALITY BASIC EDUCATION ACT — O.C.G.A. § 20-2-130 ET. SEQ.

162. Paragraphs 1 through 134 are hereby incorporated by reference.

163. Defendants are in violation of many of the requirements of the Quality Basic

Education Act’s provisions governing alternative education programs, including, but not limited

to, the Act’s requirement that disruptive students be separated from non-disruptive students; that

the program provide a focus on self-discipline; that the program provide for students’

educational and behavioral needs; and that the program provide supervision and counseling.

164. Defendants are also in violation of many of the Act’s provisions governing

education programs more generally, including but not limited to the Act’s requirement that

students be provided with a course of study in the background, history and development of the

federal and state governments, Georgia county and municipal governments, the history of the

United States and Georgia, and the essentials of the United States and Georgia constitutions,

including the study of American institutions and ideals; the Act’s requirement that students be

provided with a course on the dangers of alcohol and drugs; and the Act’s requirement that

students be provided with a course in sex education and AIDS prevention.

165. Plaintiffs are among the class for whose especial benefit O.C.G.A. § 20-2-130 et.

seq. was enacted and enforcement of this statute by Plaintiffs is consistent with the underlying

purpose of the legislative scheme.

COUNT VI

FAILURE TO FOLLOW DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURES — O.C.G.A. §§ 20-2-737,

20-2-738, 20-2-753, 20-2-754, 20-2-765

166. Paragraphs 1 through 134 are hereby incorporated by reference.

39

167. Defendants are required to ensure that teachers file reports about disruptive

students and that the principal or principal’s designee forward a copy of such reports to the

students’ parents within one school day along with information on how the parents may contact

the principal or designee. If disciplinary action is taken in response to such a report, written

notice is to be sent to the teacher and the students’ parents within one school day of the action

taken and reasonable attempts are to be made to confirm that such notification has been received.

Defendants have failed to ensure that these procedures are followed. O.C.G.A. § 20-2-737.

168. Defendants are required to ensure that certain procedures are followed when a

student is removed from a classroom. Teachers are to file a report describing the student’s

behavior; written notice is to be sent to the student’s parents along with a copy of the teacher’s

report; the student is to receive an opportunity to be heard by the beginning of the next school

day; if the teacher does not consent to the student’s return to class, a change in placement must

be made by a placement review committee; out-of-school suspensions may not exceed more than

10 school days; and reasonable attempts must be made to confirm that written notices have been

received by the student’s parents. Defendants have failed to ensure that these procedures are

followed. O.C.G.A. § 20-2-738.

169. Defendants are required to hold a disciplinary hearing following any instance of

an alleged violation of the student code of conduct where the principal recommends a suspension

or expulsion exceeding 10 days. Defendants have failed to ensure that these hearings take place.

O.C.G.A. § 20-2-753.

170. Defendants are required to follow certain procedures when convening disciplinary

proceedings. All parties must be given an opportunity for a hearing after reasonable notice

served personally or by mail; hearing are to be held no later than 10 school days after the

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beginning of the suspension; all parties must have an opportunity to present and respond to

evidence and to examine and cross-examine witnesses; a verbatim electronic or written record

shall be made available; decisions shall be based solely on the evidence received at the hearing

and made in writing within 10 days of the close of the record; decisions are appealable to the

board of education. Defendants have failed to ensure that these procedures are followed.

O.C.G.A. § 20-2-754.

171. Defendants are required to ensure that whenever a teacher or principal identifies a

student as a chronic disciplinary problem student, the principal shall notify the parent of the

disciplinary problem, invite the parent to observe the student in a classroom situation, and

request at least one parent to attend a conference with the principal and/or teacher to devise a

disciplinary and behavioral correction plan. Defendants have failed to ensure that these

procedures are followed. O.C.G.A. § 20-2-765.

172. Plaintiffs are among the class for whose especial benefit O.C.G.A. §§ 20-2-737,

20-2-738, 20-2-753, 20-2-754, 20-2-765 were enacted and enforcement of this statute by

Plaintiffs is consistent with the underlying purpose of the legislative scheme.

PRAYER FOR RELIEF

173. WHEREFORE, the Plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court:

174. Assume jurisdiction over this action;

175. Order that Plaintiffs may maintain this action as a class action pursuant to

O.C.G.A. § 9-11-23;

176. Declare unconstitutional and unlawful:

a. Defendants’ violation of Plaintiffs’ rights, including their right to an

adequate public education under Article VIII of the Georgia Constitution;

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b. Defendants’ violation of Plaintiffs’ rights under the Due Process Clause of

Article I of the Georgia Constitution, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth

Amendment to the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C. § 1983;

c. Defendants’ violation of Plaintiffs’ rights under Article I, Section I, Para.

XIII of the Georgia Constitution, the Fourth Amendment to the United States

Constitution, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983;

d. Section 11.11 of the AISS-CEP Contract, as being void for public policy

reasons; and

e. Defendants’ violation of Plaintiffs’ rights under O.C.G.A. §§ 20-2-130 et.

seq., 20-2-737, 20-2-738, 20-2-753, 20-2-754, and 20-2-765.

177. Permanently enjoin Defendants from subjecting Plaintiffs to practices that violate

their rights;

178. Order appropriate relief requiring Defendants to provide educational services

consistent with the requirements of the Georgia Constitution and Georgia Code;

179. Order CEP Defendants to specifically perform under the terms of the AISS-CEP

Contract and AISS Defendants to enforce the provisions of the AISS-CEP Contract;

180. Award to Plaintiffs the reasonable costs and expenses incurred in the prosecution

of this action, including reasonable attorneys’ fees; and

181. Grant any other relief the Court deems necessary or proper.

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Dated this 11th day of March 2008. Respectfully submitted, _____________________________ _____________________________

Chara Fisher Jackson (386101) Mawuli M. Malcom Davis (212029) American Civil Liberties Union Robert O. Bozeman (073561) of Georgia The Davis Bozeman Law Firm PC 75 Piedmont Ave., Ste. 514 4153 B Flat Shoals Pkwy, Ste 204 Atlanta, GA 30303 Decatur, GA 30034 Phone: (404) 523-6201 Phone: (404) 244-2004 Fax: (404) 577-0181 Fax: (404) 244-2020 _____________________________ The following counsel for Plaintiffs will seek pro hac vice admission: Nancy G. Abudu (001471) American Civil Liberties Union Emily Chiang Southern Regional Office Reginald T. Shuford 2600 Marquis One Tower Laurence M. Schwartztol 245 Peachtree Center Ave American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Atlanta, GA 30303 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor Phone: (404) 523-2721 New York, NY 10004 Fax: (404) 653-0331 Phone: (212) 549-2500 Fax: (212) 549-2680 ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFFS