Fisher v. United States
United States District Court, D. Arizona
August 6, 2019
Roy and Josie Fisher, et al., Plaintiffs,
v.
United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor,
v.
Anita Lohr, et al., Defendants, and Sidney L. Sutton, et al., Defendants-Intervenors, Maria Mendoza, et al., Plaintiffs, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor,
v.
Tucson Unified School District No. One, et al., Defendants.
SPECIAL MASTER'S REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION WITH
RESPECT TO INCLUSIVENESS AND CIVILITY
Willis
D. Hawley Special Master
Introduction
On
April 22, 2019, the Court ordered the District to provide a
supplemental notice of compliance dealing with inclusiveness
and school climates of civility.
On July
1, 2019 the District submitted the requested notice and on
July 12 the Mendoza plaintiffs filed objections to the
District notice. The themes of these objections are:
1. The District has failed to assess the efficacy of
particular strategies it is implementing with respect to
inclusiveness and civility as ordered by the Court.
2. The District is using strategies not supported by
research.
3. The District failed to develop a specific professional
learning plan for District staff as ordered by the
Court.[1]
4. The District did not, despite direction by the Court,
identify particular strategies that it would implement in the
future, if needed.
Analysis
Assessment
of existing strategies
The
District did not undertake an assessment of each of its own
practices but argued that the efficacy of those practices is
demonstrated (a) by the research showing that inclusiveness
and the absence of bullying in comparison to national data
cited by the Special Master and (b) a review of published
studies in other Districts.
It
would be extraordinarily difficult to conduct the study
mandated by the Court for the following reasons:
1. In most schools in the District, three or four of the
strategies are being implemented simultaneously. It is,
therefore, difficult to determine the relative ...