SIMI VALLEY : ACLU Names School District in Lawsuit

The American Civil Liberties Union broadened its legal attack on Simi Valley school leaders Monday by naming the school district as a defendant in the federal lawsuit the group filed last fall.

ACLU attorneys allege that school leaders--and the Simi Valley Unified School District--violated 14-year-old John Spindler’s constitutional right to express himself by prohibiting the youth from wearing patriotic T-shirts to class.

Spindler’s attire violated the school’s strict dress code, which bars T-shirts adorned with writing or pictures.

“The government entity that makes the policy ought to be held responsible,” ACLU attorney Marvin Krakow said. “It makes a lot more sense for the court to say to the school district, ‘Stop doing this.’ ”

The civil rights group first named Valley View Junior High School Principal Don Gaudioso and the district’s five elected trustees as defendants, but had previously decided not to go after the school district because of legal questions over whether the government body could be sued.

But U.S. District Court Judge Irving Hill on Monday morning accepted the ACLU’s motion to name the school district in the lawsuit. It is the most recent in a series of legal maneuvers that have delayed a trial that attorneys had hoped would begin early this month.

Lawyers now expect the case to go to trial in mid-February to early March.