Justices decide that IDEA Act does not preclude a lawsuit.
The Supreme Court ruled this week that a deaf student could sue his school district for damages for disability discrimination. The justices voted unanimously in favor of Miguel Luna Perez, whose school system in Sturgis, Michigan, provided him with an inadequate classroom aide and issued misleading reports about Perez’s progress to his parents. The school then informed the Perez family months before graduation that he did not qualify for a high school diploma.
Perez sued the school district, claiming that they owed him monetary damages for this discrimination. The school district claimed that the suit could not proceed since Perez did not first file a complaint through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). But in the Opinion of the Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that Perez’s suit may proceed because it “seeks only compensatory damages, a remedy everyone before us agrees IDEA cannot supply.”
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For discernment for the justices of the Supreme Court as they hear and rule on cases.
- For school administrators to adequately provide students with disabilities the assistance they need to learn.
Sources: Reuters, USA Today
