Sandpoint District Cited In Family’s Claim

A Sandpoint family has filed a $500,000 tort claim against the Bonner County School District, claiming its four children suffered discrimination when they were suspended from school.

The claim filed by Tim Ramirez alleges his children have suffered discrimination because of race and “low economic status.”

Ramirez said his four children, all teenagers, want to return to school. He said a daughter was a straight A student before she was suspended.

School officials did not respond to the tort claim, but said the Ramirez teens threatened other students, were insubordinate and refused to cooperate with remediation plans.

All four attend Lake Pend Oreille Alternative High School, but have been out of school for several months. “They all want to go to school,” Ramirez said. “That’s why I’ve fought so hard on this. They want to graduate and they’re not being allowed to go to school.”

, DataTimes