LOUISVILLE (CN) - The Breckenridge County Board of Education illegally assigned half of its middle school students to sex-segregated classes, without reason and without informing the students or parents of it, eight parents claim in a federal class-action civil rights suit.
The lawsuit does not state whether school officials ever gave a reason for their experiment.
Parents who protested were told they could send their kids to school in an adjoining county, or were told they could "opt out," plaintiffs say. They say that being given a post facto choice to "opt out" of an illegal program does not the program "completely voluntary," as Superintendent Evelyn Neely insists.
And they claim that the defendants - high-ranking administrators and the school board - informed the Kentucky Department of Education - falsely - that the sex segregation, without parental notification, was done because of the "'success' of the program" in previous years. Parents say there is no documentation of any such success.
They demand monetary damages and an injunction.
Breckenridge Middle School is In Hardinsburg, Ky. Plaintiffs are represented by Ninamary Buba Maginnis. See complaint.
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