The high school in East Palo Alto, CA was closed 40 years ago for several hundred Black, Hispanic and Pacific Island students, and instead of all these students going to the closest High school in the wealthy area only 2.8 miles away, students like Juan must get up at 5 AM to be bused 11 miles away to Carlmont, located the furthest distance from his home.
If Juan misses the school bus, it is a three hour city bus ride to Carlmont with three transfers, and since his father died of cancer, nobody at home who can drive him to school. If he could attend Menlo Atherton, it is only a 15-minute bike ride.
July, 2013, “Pushing the Line” report was submitted to the Sequoia Union High School District by the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights, and pages 25-26 list five laws the District violating when they force East Palo Alto kids to attend any schools other than the closest to their homes, including violating these student’s Civil Rights.
A report written in 2014 by the Civil Rights Project title is "California the Most segregated State for Latino Students" and reminds us that our state has "little to celebrate 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education."
If you look at the Seal of Menlo-Atherton High School on Wikipedia, you will see that the school's motto is "Strength in Diversity"-- and this school been keeping "diversity" from attending for almost 40 years? Juan Dedios is trying to have Menlo-Atherton and the District live up to the school's motto.
In the famous Brown v. Board of Education US Supreme Court ruling, the court decided that the plaintiff Linda Brown had the right to attend the closest school to her home. This year is the 60th anniversary of that educational right being established by the Supreme Court, and we all want the Sequoia Union High School District to follow all of the laws, and let Juan Dedios go to the closest school to his home.
