An injunction hearing began Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging the Arkansas State Board of Education’s January 28 dissolution of the Little Rock School Board.
An attorney for the plaintiffs, Rickey Hicks, said his team’s initial examination of school board members is meant to establish they have experienced irreparable harm as a result of their dismissal from duty.
He also said during a break in the hearing that there was no basis for the takeover because the board was not the cause of the problems in the schools.
“We’re putting our witnesses on who are mostly today the school board members who are talking about how they were totally shocked in being removed and how they still do not understand the rationale for removing the entire School Board to take over the entire school district when only six of its schools were in academic distress,” Hicks said.
Attorneys for the state have filed an appeal of Judge Wendell Griffen’s refusal to dismiss the case to the Arkansas Supreme Court. They say the Arkansas Constitution protects the state from the lawsuit.
Griffen denied a request to delay the hearing pending the Supreme Court decision and has refused to recuse himself from the case after publicly opposing to the State Board’s decision to take over the district.
Testimony is to resume Thursday.
