Opinion ID: 22219
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Racially Inequitable Transportation Burden

Text: 14 Until recently, the transportation burden was clearly distributed inequitably between the white and black students in the District. A number of students, most of whom were black, endured onerous bus rides every school day. In fact, some students who reside in the predominately black Flora area traveled as long as 2½ hours each way on a daily basis. After the filing of this appeal, however, the parties entered into the 2000 consent decree which resolves the transportation issue and thus renders moot the second ground for Plaintiffs' objection to the planned site for the new high school. That decree specifies that the District shall insure that transportation to school is provided on a non-discriminatory basis and that no regular bus route will exceed one-and-one half hours each way for any student. As for the students in the predominately black Flora area, the 2000 consent decree specifies that the District shall use its best efforts and shall add additional bus routes as appropriate to ensure that no high school student in the Flora attendance zone will ride more than 45 minutes one way. In the event that this should not prove possible for all Flora students, [t]he District shall provide in its reports to the Court an explanation for the additional time of the bus ride regarding those students whose travel time exceeds 45 minutes. As enforcement of these provisions is expected to resolve all concerns regarding inequitable transportation burdens that may otherwise result from construction of the new high school at the site selected by the District, this issue has been removed from our purview in the instant appeal. Should the provisions of the consent decree be violated or fail to resolve existing or future transportation burdens, or should the transportation burdens borne by students become racially inequitable, redress must be fashioned by the district court or by this Court on subsequent appeal ---- but not prospectively and speculatively in this appeal. 15