LOS ANGELES (CN) - The Compton school district fails to meet the needs of students who suffer "complex trauma" from living with violence, abuse and poverty, parents, teachers and children say in a federal class action.
Five students so traumatized by their lives they say they are legally disabled are joined as plaintiffs by their guardians and Compton teachers who say they have lost "dozens of students to violence and attended their funerals."
They claim Compton Unified School District violates the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and federal regulations on public education.
"Schools are obliged under the Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disabilities Act to accommodate students who are being denied benefits of educational programs solely by reason of experiencing complex trauma," the 50-page lawsuit states.
It recapitulates problems Compton children face, including exposure to violence and loss, deportations and incarceration of family members, living with someone with a drug or alcohol problem, systemic racism and discrimination, and the stress from lacking basic necessities such as food and shelter.
Such overwhelming deprivation can create "complex trauma:" a concatenation of stresses so powerful they overwhelm a young person's ability to cope, according to the complaint.
Citing a wide range of research, the plaintiffs say childhood trauma blocks academic success for millions of children, leading to low literacy, high dropout rates, repeating grades, and low overall achievement.
The trauma must be dealt with to close the achievement gap, said Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney with Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm that filed the lawsuit along with Irell & Manella.
"Prolonged exposure to trauma results in injuries to the developing minds of children," Rosenbaum said. "It's the type of roadblock to learning that our federal anti-discrimination laws were created to address, so that students in these circumstances are not denied equal opportunity public education.
"There is no greater enemy to learning than unaddressed trauma."
Research shows that traumatic experiences can physically alter the developing brains and bodies of children, which can affect their behavior for decades and lead to post-traumatic stress disorder and mental health conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and major depression.
But rather then taking reasonable steps to address the needs of traumatized children, Compton Unified - which serves 26,000 students - has punished and excluded such students, leading to their academic failure, said Kathryn Eidmann, an attorney with Public Counsel.
Punishing the students "sends a damaging message that students are responsible for the trauma they have endured and that their futures are disposable," Eidmann said.
Plaintiff Peter P., 17, was repeatedly physically and sexually abused by his mother's boyfriends during the early years of his life and witnessed the abuse of his siblings and mother, the lawsuit states.
He was placed in foster care after his mother, a drug addict, lost her parental rights. In middle school, Peter watched as his best friend was shot death. Last year Peter was stabbed when he tried to protect a friend whose relative was attacking her with a knife.
Peter's two older brothers are in jail and a man who served as a caretaker for Peter and his siblings when they entered the foster system is in prison for murder, the complaint states.