LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Two Louisville parents are suing Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) for its plan to cut the majority of magnet and traditional school bus transportation.
In the nine-page federal lawsuit, the parents claim their kids' civil rights are being "eviscerated" by the school district in a move they said is discriminatory to thousands of Black students in Louisville.
According to the parents, the cuts eliminate their chances of sending their kids to the best schools in JCPS.
The plaintiffs are two moms, Mary Bledsaw and Taryn Bell. Bledsaw is suing on behalf of her two high school boys -- one a rising junior at Male High School and the other a rising freshman at Central High School.
"The tipping point was how are we going to continue as a family to make sure that he can finish out at Male," Bledsaw said at a news conference on Thursday.
Bell is filing suit on behalf of her rising 5th grader, who has special needs, at Whitney Young Elementary.
"For me, financially it would be a huge strain because right now my husband is disabled, and I'm the only one who can work," Bell said.
Hear from the parents filing the lawsuit:
The defendants in the case are JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio and the Jefferson County Board of Education.
Back in April, JCPS' Board voted to cut bus service for the majority of students attending magnet and traditional schools, with the exception of schools with 75 percent or more kids on free or reduced lunch.
Right now, that's just Central and Western High Schools.
This came at the recommendation of Pollio, who said given their bus driver shortage, it's the only feasible way to reduce delays and get kids to and from school in a more timely fashion.
Earlier in June, alongside Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, Pollio announced a partnership to contract 70 TARC drivers to drive JCPS buses -- which he says will allow the district to restore bus transportation for some magnet and traditional school students.
Pollio has said the "most in-need families and children" will be priority.
Read the full lawsuit:
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Well-known attorney Teddy Gordon is representing the moms.
He's a familiar face, known for suing JCPS dozens of times in the past, largely centered around issues relating to student assignment and the district's responses to student behavior.
The lawsuit puts race at the center of the issue, with Gordon noting four white Board members voted for the new transportation plan and three Black members voted against it.
"It's been a cataclysmic failure of bussing. Whatever the Jefferson County Public Schools can do wrong, they continue to make it worse," Gordon said. "They have disproportionately discriminated against the African American students."
Most notably, Gordon won a case that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007, which issued a landmark ruling striking down JCPS' desegregation system that used a student's race to determine which school they were assigned to.
When asked for comment on the suit, a JCPS spokesperson told WHAS 11, "We just received a copy of the lawsuit and are reviewing it."
Gordon acknowledged that bus transportation for the Central High student referenced in the lawsuit is still in tact, but he explained they noted his case anyway because they want to make sure that doesn't change.
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