LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville attorney Teddy Gordon is asking a federal judge to immediately restore bus service for all Jefferson County Public School (JCPS) students and go back to the school district's transportation plan from this last school year.
On behalf of four JCPS moms, Gordon filed a motion for a temporary restraining order Wednesday as part of a lawsuit from June 20. In the suit, parents argue the district's transportation cuts are discriminatory and violate their kids' civil rights.
On Thursday, WHAS11 followed up with Gordon, asking what he's trying to accomplish with school less than a month away.
"JCPS has major problems right now; they don't know how many kids are going to any particular school," Gordon told us. "The easiest thing for this judge to do right now for the start of school is go back to the previous plan. That way there is no discrimination."
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Theoretically, a TRO would pause JCPS' new transportation plan, but the district has already overhauled its bus routes -- creating new ones to be more effective with their shortage of bus drivers.
Drivers can get a first look at the routes as early as Friday and begin practicing later in July. Familiarity will be a major factor for when school starts on Aug. 8.
So naturally, the question we asked: What would putting a stop to the current path even look like with the first day of school around the corner?
"If the judge does issue the restraining order, then the district I think has to unwind everything that they decided to do as it relates to the new transportation plan that they're going to put in place," former JCPS Board member Sam Corbett told WHAS11. "It would throw the district into, I would suggest, total disarray."
Corbett said he agrees with the basis of the lawsuit, but acknowledged the timing of the request could be tricky.
"My inclination would be to say -- to not make a decision before the beginning of school to allow some more time to try to work it out," Corbett added. "And if she does issue a ruling, you would have to think that she'd give the district time to respond to change to modify what they're doing."
When asked for a response to the motion, JCPS spokesperson Carolyn Callahan said, "At this point, our legal team has not received or reviewed the motion."
WHAS11 also asked the school district for an update on how many kids could see bus service restored with those 70 TARC drivers coming over. We're told they don't have an estimate on possible service restoration.
"Many of the TARC drivers need to get their school bus certification and go through training. As we've said, we would not be adding routes back for the first day of school. No routes will be added until we feel confident about the total number of drivers we will have," Callahan said.
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