BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday the City of Gardendale cannot break away from the Jefferson County School System and form its own system because the plan was racially motivated. 

The case was returned to U.S. District Judge Madeline Haikala with instructions to rescind her order allowing Gardendale, a predominantly white suburb of Birmingham, to phase in a separate school system, starting with the elementary grades, over a three-year period.

Haikala had ruled April 24 that Gardendale residents could form their own school system under prescribed conditions even though they had racial motives for the split. She cited comments by some citizens on social media as evidence of the motivation.

The judge’s conditions included appointing an African-American to the school board, creating a plan to avoid discrimination and paying the county $50 million for the high school building in Gardendale.

Both the Gardendale school advocates and the attorneys for black school children appealed the judge’s decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“We have long maintained that Gardendale’s attempt to form its own school district was specifically designed to exclude black school children,” said Sam Spital, a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund who applauded the decision. “Ultimately, this separation would have created a district significantly whiter than the county as a whole, forcing some students to attend more racially segregated schools.”

Gardendale Mayor Stan Hogeland and Dr. Michel Hogue, president of the Gardendale Eduication Board, said race was not considered in proposing a separate city school system. They said the city would appeal the decision by the three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The Gardendale Board of Education is deeply grieved and disappointed by the opinion of the three-judge panel refusing to allow us to operate our own city schools in Gardendale,” said Hogue. “We believe our actions have always reflected only our desire to form a new, welcoming, and inclusive school system to help school children and parents succeed, and we will continue to fight to achieve this by seeking further review in the federal courts.”

He said the appeals court judges misunderstood the evidence in the case and misapplied the law.

“A decision that blames Gardendale for the comments of private citizens on social media is both contrary to the Constitution and a fundamental miscarriage of justice,” said Hogue.

Eventually, the case could end up before the U. S. Supreme Court.

The appeals court concluded Judge Haikala’s decision and conditions wrongfully “devised and permitted a partial secession that neither party requested” despite finding the Gardendale school plan was racially motivated.

The court, however, left the door open for Gardendale to come back later with a more acceptable proposal.

“If the Gardendale Board, for permissible purposes in the future, satisfies its burden to develop a secession plan that will not impede the desegregation efforts of the Jefferson County Board, then the district court may not prohibit the secession,” the appeal court’s finding stated. “We do not belittle the ‘need that is strongly felt in our society’ to have direct control over decisions vitally affecting the education of one’s children.”

The appeals court noted the struggle over desegregating the Jefferson County School System, dated to the 1960s when an African American father successfully sued the county school board on behalf of his daughter and her black classmates, claiming they were subjected to a segregated school system in violation of the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in the famous Brown vs. Board of Education case.

At least one Jefferson County resident, Cathy Tuggle Maple of Mt. Olive, was relieved the current chapter in the dispute appeared to be ending.

“Finally. An Answer,” she posted on Facebook. “Federal court rules Gardendale may NOT form their own school system. I’m just thankful for an answer so we can all move on. Together or in different directions. It’s been a long 6 years.”

Rachel Davis is the editor of the North Jefferson News. Contact her at editor@njeffersonnews.com.