Lead Plaintiff In Landmark Lawsuit Gets 2nd Chance At Education — At Age 60
The series has received support from the Fund for Journalism on Child Well-Being, a program of USC's Center for Health Journalism.
Other stories in this series include:
One African American family, half a century of experience in SF public schools
How can San Francisco support its most vulnerable black residents? Help them succeed at school.
Learning While Black: Community forum
A legacy of mistreatment for San Francisco’s black special ed students
African American honor roll student says when teachers set the bar high, ‘you gotta go get it'
SFUSD program intervenes early to keep kids out of special ed for behavior
SFUSD fires up Bayview teachers in hopes they will stick around
G: The Miseducation of Larry P
A Landmark Lawsuit Aimed to Fix Special Ed for California's Black Students. It Didn’t.
LEE ROMNEY / KALW
It’s been 40 years since a landmark legal ruling led to a statewide ban on the IQ testing of black students for purposes of placement in special ed. Now, the lead plaintiff in that case, known as “Larry P,” is getting a second chance at an education.
Back in 1979, a federal judge banned California school districts from administering IQ tests to black students to determine whether they belong in special ed. In his ruling, the judge called the tests culturally biased and said districts were using them to channel too many black kids into dead-end classes. That ban is still in place. No other state has one. So the “Larry P” case, named after the lead plaintiff, is well-known.
But, until we tracked down the real “Larry P,” no one knew what had become of him. It turns out, “Larry P.” was a pseudonym. His real name is Darryl Lester. And since we aired Darryl's story in January of this year, his life has changed.
[This article was originally published by KALW.]