[JURIST]

A lawsuit [complaint, PDF] was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan [official website] on Tuesday alleging inadequate education facilities and standards in Detroit. Seven students are contending [WSJ report] that the state of Michigan has denied them their constitutional right to literacy due to "infestations of mice and cockroaches, unqualified staffs, unsafe buildings, and inadequate teaching materials." The lawsuit is seeking class action status for those who attend school run by the Detroit Public School Community District. The suit was brought by Public Counsel [advocacy website] as a pro bono matter. The suit cites [press release] numerous examples of inadequate education including an example where an eighth-grade student was forced to teach seventh and eighth-grade math because no teacher was available. [MORE]