Morales v. Shannon

This class action lawsuit was filed in 1970 by Ms. Genoveva Morales on behalf of her children against the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District at the height of the Latino civil rights movement. In 1975, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that Uvalde C.I.S.D. in Texas had failed to desegregate its school system in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court ruled that the District had violated the rights of the Latino plaintiff class, and the District was placed under a desegregation order. MALDEF has continued to monitor the District and evaluate whether it has acted appropriately to remedy the pernicious effects of discrimination on its Latino students.

In June 2007, the District sought to dismiss the desegregation order altogether, a move opposed by MALDEF. Trial was set for October 27, 2008, but the parties reached a tentative agreement in August 2008. Following approval by the Uvalde C.I.S.D. Board of Trustees, in September 2008 the U.S. District Court in San Antonio signed a Consent Order memorializing a settlement agreement reached between the District and the plaintiffs. The Consent Order grants dismissal in the areas of student assignments, non-faculty staff, facilities and transportation. The Consent Order also retains court supervision for a period of at least three years and provides specific remedies to further desegregate the District in the areas of bilingual education, faculty, gifted and talented, advanced placement and pre-advanced placement, extracurricular and co-curricular activities, and student achievement.

MALDEF is committed to preserving the protections of the desegregation order until the District can show that it has eliminated the vestiges of discrimination that continue to affect Latino students.