Seeks to Protect Children from Unconstitutional, Brutal Practices The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has filed a federal class action suit targeting the use of mace on Birmingham City School children as a means of basic school discipline. The suit was filed on behalf of district students who have been brutalized with chemical weapons and other excessive force.It also seeks to protect other students from these abusive and unconstitutional practices. The lawsuit, which was filed after the Birmingham School Board refused to address the issue after it was raised last month by the SPLC, outlines how the Birmingham Board of Education, Superintendent Craig Witherspoon, and the Birmingham Police Department violated the constitutional rights of Birmingham students through an abusive and unconstitutional policy that allows School Resource Officers to use chemical weapons against them to enforce basic school discipline.
“We must ask ourselves: What kind of school system allows the entry of armed police officers who mace its students? One with a serious illness. One that needs to re-examine its ultimate purpose for existence – educating and protecting its students,” said Ebony Glenn Howard, lead attorney on the case for the Southern Poverty Law Center.