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Chamizal Residents to Announce Civil Rights Complaint Against El Paso School District Tuesday

EL PASO -- The grassroots organization Familias Unidas del Chamizal has announced it will hold a press conference at 4:30 PM on April 3 in front of Bowie High School (801 S San Marcial St, El Paso, TX 79905) to announce it is filing a Title VI Civil Rights complaint against El Paso's Independent School District.

Here is a statement issued by the group:  Filed with the Department of Education, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health and Human Services by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) and the University of Texas School of Law Environmental Clinic, the complaint charges that the school district's plan to build a central bus hub at Bowie will unfairly burden Chamizal with heavy air pollution and traffic, which already compromises the health of local families. The complaint demands federal intervention to stop the school district from building the hub. 

“Under Title VI, institutions that receive federal funding, as the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) does, cannot discriminate based on race, color, or national origin,” said TRLA attorney and lead counsel Erin Gaines. “Burdening the low-income Chamizal neighborhood, which has a higher population of Hispanic and foreign-born residents than the city as a whole, with a disproportionate share of pollution that causes multiple, debilitating health problems is a serious form of discrimination. It also goes against EPA’s recommendations for protecting children from harmful pollution sources in the School Siting Guidelines.”