HASD sued in federal court to adopt rarely-used election system, alleging racism
HAZLETON – A pair of mothers have filed suit in federal court against the Hazleton Area School District, alleging that the at-large method of electing school directors — used by the vast majority of school districts in the region — “dilutes the voting strength of Hispanic voters.”
Aleida Aquino and Brendalis Lopez filed the suit Monday in the the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. They are both Hispanic mothers from the City of Hazleton, and they are represented by the California-based UCLA Voting Rights Project.
In the complaint filed today, they are “challenging the at-large system for electing directors of the Hazleton Area School Board,” claiming it is a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fourteenth Amendment.
In the at-large system, all voters in the district vote to fill every seat on the school board and each candidate must run a district-wide campaign and, if elected, they represent the entire district.
Instead, they want the court to force the school district — which covers a wide area from Brandonville north to Drums, and from Rock Glen east to Freeland and Beaver Meadows — to adopt a regional election system, where the district is split into regions and elect board members to represent only those areas.
That system is almost exclusively used by rural districts in east-central Pennsylvania and, if adopted, Hazleton would be the only school district with territory in Carbon County to employ the system.
The mothers say that 39.6% of the population of the Hazleton Area School District is Hispanic, while 55.4% is White, citing the U.S. American Community Survey published by the Census Bureau.
Much of that population, they say, is concentrated in the city, where 62.2% of the population is Hispanic, and in West Hazleton, with a percentage of 66.5%.
They say that, despite “the fact that Hispanics make up the majority of the voting age population in and around” the city, Hispanic candidates have been unsuccessful in primary and general elections for the school board. That, despite being “among the top vote-getters in primarily Hispanic precincts in and around the City of Hazleton.”
“The current at-large method of electing HASB directors dilutes the voting strength of Hispanic voters and effectively forecloses Hispanic voters from electing candidates of their choice to the school board in violation” of the VRA and Fourteenth Amendment, the mothers allege in their complaint.
They add that the Hispanic population “is politically cohesive” and they claim that “the White population of the HASD votes sufficiently as a bloc to usually defeat the preferred candidates of Hispanic voters.”
“The Hispanic population of the HASD is sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a majority of the voting-age population in one or more single-member districts, particularly in and around the City of Hazleton,” they wrote in the complaint.
No Hispanic has been elected to the school board, they say, and all current members are white. They also said that no Hispanic candidate has been elected to state or federal office representing the entire district and that “Hispanic candidates have generally been unsuccessful in elections for local municipal offices within the HASD.”
They claim there is a history of official discrimination against Hispanics in the HASD affecting voter’s rights and that the Hispanic population “continues to suffer the effects of discrimination in education, policing, employment, including employment within the HASD, which hinders their ability to participate effectively in the political process.”
The mothers also allege that Hispanic organizations have historically been excluded from community and economic development efforts undertaken by the city.
They are asking the court for a judgement prohibiting the school district from electing its members at-large and forcing it to implement an alternate system.
The only alternative allowed under state law is the election of members by region, or a hybrid of at-large and regional.
In Luzerne, Schuylkill, Columbia, and Northumberland counties, the regional or hybrid systems are employed almost exclusively by rural districts. In Carbon County, every school district uses the at-large system.
Two districts — Lake Lehman and Wyoming Valley West — have a regional system in Luzerne County.
In Schuylkill County, the rural Tri-Valley and Williams Valley districts have a regional system, while Pine Grove has a hybrid. Shenandoah Valley, Mahanoy Area, and North Schuylkill all elect directors at-large.
In Columbia County, Benton and Central Columbia have a regional system and, in Northumberland County, Milton, Line Mountain, and Warrior Run have regional systems.
The UCLA Voting Rights Project calls the suit a “landmark lawsuit.”
“We must ensure that our elections reflect the diversity of the community within the Hazleton Area School District,” Bernadette Reyes, voting rights counsel at the UCLA VRP, said in a media release. “The District’s at-large system unjustly dilutes the Latino community’s electoral influence, ignoring their significant presence in the student body and the community. Our lawsuit aims not just to challenge this inequity but to foster a more inclusive, representative governance that resonates with every community member’s voice, particularly in educational settings.”
“For the Hispanic citizens in the School District, the promise of a representative democracy remains unfulfilled until we eradicate these structural inequalities in political opportunities,” said Dan Brier, who serves as co-counsel in the case. “Myers Brier & Kelly is deeply honored to represent these courageous women in enforcing the protections of the Voting Rights Act and Fourteenth Amendment,” Brier added.
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