The Landmark Legal Foundation has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of Mary Amaya, a Fontana, Calif., woman who claims her son was denied an intelligence test on the basis of his race.
The Kansas City-based public-interest law foundation is challenging the state’s ban on intelligence testing for black students, which was imposed following a court’s finding that the tests were “culturally biased.’'
In Larry P. v. Wilson Riles, the court barred the use of intelligence tests for placement of black students in programs for the educably mentally retarded. The state board of education later barred the use of most intelligence testing for black students.
Ms. Amaya, who said she wanted her son tested to determine the cause of his school problems, drew national attention last year when she spoke out against the ban and rallied the support of a conservative member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. (See Education Week, Oct. 28, 1987.)
The foundation “is fighting for the equal educational rights of Mary Amaya, her son, and other parents and children who desire to make their own choices as to the benefits of intelligence testing,’' said the group’s president, Jerald L. Hill.
A Derry, N.H., couple have lost their legal battle against what they said were school-district “orders’’ to keep their child on Ritalin, a controversial medication used to to treat attention-deficit disorders in children.
In a May 24 ruling on the case, a state hearing officer said that the school district acted “appropriately’’ by relying on the advice of the child’s physician and making Ritalin use part of the individualized education program for 7-year-old Casey Jesson.
The boy’s parents, Valerie and Michael Jesson, had protested the proposed special-education program because they said the drug was causing their son to stop eating, lose sleep, and experience violent outbursts. (See Education Week, May 11, 1988.)
