ACLU reaches settlement with Union City, school district By MATT KAPKO Bay City News Service May 18, 2005 UNION CITY More than three years ago, almost 60 high school students in Union City were rounded up by police and school officials, searched, interrogated, photographed and held in two racially segregated groups against their will. But a settlement announced today ensures that students in Union City will never be subjected to civil-rights violations of this kind again, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. The civil-rights group filed a lawsuit on behalf of three students caught up in the Feb. 22, 2002 incident. The New Haven Unified School District and Union City agreed to pay approximately $160,000 in damages and attorney fees; about $60,000 of which will be evenly distributed to the three students represented in the lawsuit. The school district and Union City also agreed to policy changes and renewed officer training to ensure compliance with the implicit rights of all students and minors. "We need to focus on conduct, not on labeling students,'' ACLU staff attorney Ann Brick said today at a news conference. "What this settlement prevents is a mass roundup of kids.'' The school district and Union City deny any wrongdoing. A house principal at James Logan High School and Union City police officers arbitrarily rounded up students at the lunch hour that day, seemingly targeting them by race, and escorting them to segregated classrooms lined with police officers, the ACLU alleged in the suit. "The situation mushroomed into this mass roundup,'' Brick said. "Kids were treated like criminals.'' The majority of students targeted in the on-campus police raid, considered a "gang-intervention meeting'' by police and school administrators, were Latino and Asian. None of the students were specifically accused of any wrongdoing and no arrests or charges resulted from the sweep. "There was no rhyme or reason to it, it was very arbitrary,'' Brick said. "It's our contention that no constitutional rights were violated in this case,'' said Kim Cowell, trial attorney for Union City. "Those kids were gang members essentially,'' she said, referring to the three plaintiffs. "The school district got some very reliable information that there was going to be a big gang fight at the school that day,'' she said, referring to rival gangs Dakota 14 and Horny Boys. Cowell said school officials were very specific in selecting the students to be interrogated, based on that information. "I felt that I had no reason to be in that classroom,'' Brian Benitez, one of the three plaintiffs, said today. Benitez was on his way to buy lunch when he was ordered to follow police and school administrators along with a group of other students. When Benitez protested, he was told he would be forcibly taken if he did not comply, he said. Once inside the classroom, Don Montoya, the school's principal, threatened students with suspension, Benitez said. "The kids were free to go as far as the police officers were concerned,'' Cowell said. "It was a tense moment because no one knew what was going to happen," Benitez said. "This is not an ordeal that I wish any child or parent to go through,'' said Angela Munoz, mother of Victor Munoz, one of the plaintiffs in the case. Jessica Prentice, a third plaintiff in the lawsuit, did not attend the news conference. The settlement spells out a range of policy changes to be implemented by Union City police and the New Haven Unified School District. All information and photographs obtained in the incident will be destroyed. Students will no longer be targeted based on their race, as per the settlement, and searches can only be conducted on a student's person or property when school officials have specific reason to believe a school rule or law has been violated. Home