LOS ANGELES – A Latino civil rights organization representing Latino parents and students is appealing a state trial court judgment in favor of the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) in a case challenging the district’s 2019 -2020 elementary school closures.
In December 2022, MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) filed suit against PUSD on behalf of seven Latino parents whose children were transferred to other schools following the closure of three elementary schools in 2020. The case was tried before the court without a jury over four days in November 2025. MALDEF attorneys presented evidence that the district shuttered the schools without providing parents with adequate opportunity for meaningful input and that the closures violated the California Constitution’s guarantee of a right to education, as well as California civil rights protections.
On January 30, 2026, the court issued a statement of decision and entered judgment in favor of PUSD concluding that the district did not violate the California Equal Protection Clause, California Government Code section 11135, California Education Code section 220 or any other applicable law in connection with the school closures. The court also denied all requests for declaratory and injunctive relief and awarded costs to the district.
Attorneys filed the notice of appeal on March 26 in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles. Briefing in the appeal began on August 24, as the case moved forward before the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District.
Please attribute the following statement to MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) President and General Counsel Thomas A. Saenz:
“Civil rights protections are only real if judges understand them and apply them with fairness and diligence. California law categorically protects against significant discriminatory effects in education decision-making, regardless of whether the effects are intentional or not. Latino students here plainly bore the brunt of the dislocation, discontinuity, and other negative effects of school closures in Pasadena.”
Please attribute the following statement to MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) Staff Attorney Carly Pablos:
“Latino students disproportionately shouldered the burden of PUSD’s decision to close three elementary schools during the 2019-2020 school year, and our clients faced academic disruption, emotional distress, and logistical challenges as a result of being forced to change schools. With this appeal, we hope that the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, will recognize the discriminatory impact of PUSD’s elementary school closures on the Latino community and deliver justice to PUSD’s Latino students.”
Read more about the case HERE.