Tuesday, December 19, 2017

ELIA SUES BISD: CHARGES VIOLATIONS OF KIDS' CIVIL RIGHTS

By Juan  Montoya

The first thing you notice when you pick up a copy of 404th District Judge Elia Cornejo Lopez's lawsuit against the Brownsville Independent School District for allegedly violating her children's constitutional rights is the $1 billion demand.

Conrnejo-Lopez filed the lawsuit alleging the violation under 1983 Civil Rights Act last November 30. At the time she was listed as a plaintiff "individually and as Next Friend" of two children identified by the initials "L.G.L. and I.M.L."

(We are now told that the $1 billion was entered by clerks at the federal courthouse when the plaintiffs did not include a damage figure on their complaint. The clerks automatically opt for the highest level of damages to make the entries.)

In the complaint she asks the court for "declaratory and injunctive relief" and asks for a "temporary restraining order (TRO) and preliminary injunction (PI)" against the district.

That was followed Dec. 6 when she petitioned the court for a temporary restraining order hearing. The next day Judge Andrew Hanen denied her ex-parte motion. Undeterred, Cornejo-Lopez filed for a TRO a second time Dec. 15.

And just yesterday, Hanen agreed to hold the hearing
January 3, 2018, but he issued an order preventing Lopez from representing herself or her "Next Friends" because she is not admitted to the Southern District of Texas and "consequently cannot represent others in this district."

This was followed by Cornejo-Lopez submitting a motion the same day to be allowed to appear "Pro Hac Vice (for on this occasion only). Hanen has not ruled on the motion, but the docket reads: "Terminated 12/18/2017, Lead Attorney to be noticed."

(Some attorneys have told us that a attorney not licensed to practice in this court must be licensed to practice in some other federal court to appear Pro Hac Vice, so Cornejo-Lopez might be out of luck. But she does have Gustavo Acevedo of Pharr as co-counsel and he can represent her if Hanen does not grant her motion.)

In the rambling 36-page complaint and the application for TRO and PI, Cornejo-Lopez says the BISD – and Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas, Carlos Guerra, Theresa Alarcon, and Miguel Salinas, among others – should be enjoined from discriminating and harassing and retaliating against her and her children.

Her complaint includes allegations of violations of free speech, assembly, due process, right o petition, freedom of religion, equal protection of the law, gender, race and national origin discrimination, Federal Education Records Privacy Act (FERPA) violations, violations of privacy, invasion of privacy, retaliation, harassment, intentional infliction of distress under the First and 14th Amendment, by the defendants against her and her two children.

She asks that the court allow her to recover damages, treble damages, attorney's fees and costs of court.

The alleged violations concerning Cornejo-Lopez freedom os speech, assembly and petition center around the BISD administration and board counsel's refusal to allow her to address the board during the public comment sections of the meeting of Sept. 5 to point out course curriculum guides.

She charges that under public comment rules she had the right to address the board in executive session at the next meeting (Sept. 12) to address her concerns. However, she claims that board counsel Baltazar Salazar told her they did not carry anything to the next meeting and told her to file a grievance.

When she showed up on Sept. 12, Salazar told her she would not be able to address the board. In fact, her complaint charges that there was no public comment period on that meeting's agenda. The defendants' refusal to allow her freedom of speech prevented her from informing the board of the bad acts of the administration and BISD employees, she charges.

The issue around her kids include:

1. That Alarcon allowed a student on August 2016 to take a freshman take an Advanced Placement Chemistry course even though the student did not meet the requirements, but that in 2017, her child, L.G.L, was not allowed by Alarcon to take AP Psychology course. Cornejo-Lopez said that L.G.L. met all the course requirements and that Alarcon violated rules to treat similarly situated students to be treated the same.

Cornejo-Lopez also charges that aside from the violations under the Equal Protection class, her child was discriminated because of race because the student allowed to take the AP Chemistry course was a white female and L.G.L. was Hispanic.

2. Cornejo-Lopez also charges that the defendants conspired to delay and ignore some 13 grievances she had filed on behalf of L.G.L for a number of alleged violations of her constitutional rights. She said the district has dragged out hearing the grievances by hiring and firing the investigator who was supposed to hear the report for at least 18 months and no report has been forthcoming. As a result, none of her grievances has been heard, she charges.

3. Cornejo-Lopez charged that former trustee had requested the status of the grievances and that a copy of the summaries were then sent to all the board members and appeared on social media sites such as Chisme, Facebook and El Rrun-Rrun violating her privacy rights under FERPA. The hiring and firing of the investigators and the delays caused by the administration may result in L.G.L. graduating before they are heard, making the grievances moot.

The plaintiffs ask the court for a declaratory judgment that they have exhausted all her administrative remedies and allow them to present them to the court.
Cornejo-Lopez also charged her children were discriminated against when:

1. L.M.L. was not allowed to make up a 0 (zero) she got for not handing in an assignment on time and a teacher did not accept it. Yet, she charges, the teacher took late assignments from three other students and raised their grades but not her daughters's. When the teacher sent an email to her fellow teachers to ask how to deal with Cornejo-Lopez, she charged that it was defamatory, slanderous and libelous and violated her privacy.

Cornejo-Lopez's complaint charge that a golf coach did not allow her daughter to play at a golf tournament in retaliation. However, a mediator found that the proper paperwork to allow her to participate had not been handed in.

She also charges that her daughter was targeted for retaliation when a teacher took a photo of a prayer seeing in a class violating her rights to assembly in prayer.

2. She charged that her daughter was discriminated on the basis of national origin because the district only gave AP Spanish exams to Mexican nationals, recent immigrants to the United States, children whose parents only speak Spanish, future first-generation college students.

Further, she charges that the BISD does not tell parents or students that the district only gives weighed GPA points to students who take the AP Spanish in middle school, only those who take it in high school. She charged that while a teacher named Diego Garcia conspired with another teacher to make a false statement against her daughter, he covered up a situation where he found a teacher and a student having sex in a classroom.

Cornejo-Lopez charges that the retaliation for filing grievances included a teacher taking away an award from another student and giving it to her daughter "to bring discord and conflict to L.M.L. and have (her) isolated from the group."

As part of her prayer for relief, Cornejo-Lopez wants the court to be enjoined from "discriminating and retaliating against L.M.L...regarding the AP Spanish exam and the granting of the GPA weight in high school. In the alternative, that L.M.L. and other students so situated be granted the opportunity to retest and any retest scores be used to grant GPA weight...in high school on the AP Spanish exam.

The weighed GPA scores are of utmost importance and could give some students a leg up when they are vying for salutatorian in their high school class to be automatically awarded $10s is not $100,000s in academic scholarships if they graduate at the top of their class.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Judge Cornejo, you will be the voice for many children who can't afford to defy la bruja Alarcon. Your case will serve as an example of the multiple discrimination the children (and teachers) suffer with this reckless gang of incompetent assholes in power.

Anonymous said...

Elia Cornejo Lopez is an EMBARRASSMENT to the female species.. Not only should she loose her Stat Bar Lic she should be banned from BISD Campuses. Elia Cornejo Lopez has managed to literally push her heavy weight around and expect for teachers, staff, administration and students to cater to her adopted daughter and son. Who gives her the right to demand for her children to be catered to? Why should teachers be changing grades just to please her? Elia Cornejo Lopez is a SICK WOMAN! It's a stupidity for Judge Haynen to allow the Law Suit in Federal Court... La Marrana Atorado cara de Puerco tiene que entender que sus hijos sobre puestos no van a tener a Puerco con ellos todo el tiempo! The hell with Elia Cornejo Lopez she has taken advantage of her position and the State needs to come down on her.

Anonymous said...

'Ta pendeja Elia la vagina cangrejo!

Who in the fuck does this bitch think she is?

Hey Gorda, worry about raising your phantom drivers, I mean spoiled kids, before you go suing others!

Spoiling your little fucktards so much will come back and kick you in the ass later.

Hopefully Judge Hanen, a REAL judge, puts you in your place. You are just as bad as Bobby the hypochondriac!

Anonymous said...

Hear ye, Hear ye! La marana cebosa has spoken and now BISD needs to change all its policies to please her "so-called" daughter. She has made her child's life so impossible in school for not one person "likes" or want to be around her for fear that her mother will sue them too if they are not sweet on her. It is a shame because the girl is a sharp student and could go far, but if she "inherits" her Mother's charisma, the poor baby is lost. I guess Elia needs money since she is selling her house and her "stolen car" may have been damaged.
Elia, shame on you for being the kind of parent you are and for using your position to try to intimidate people. You are really showing the true face of ethical law practice - oh but since you are not accepted in some courts, maybe they know more than we do. Pobre de el
senor Lopez/henpecked. Since you are not suing Baltazar, is he in with you and giving you all the stuff you want? Your time will come and maybe your retirement will be earlier than you think- and not because you will become a millionaire. Me aguitas, vieja feaota!

Anonymous said...

esta vieja esta loca!, wait until these two kids grow-up, they'll be as crazy as mom. " The older I get the more I look like my mother" If you don't have it upstairs, there is no way in hell mom is going to rescue you.

Anonymous said...

Please find someone in the criminal justice system in Cameron County that has some fraction of judicial conduct. Can you imagine what the teachers of this child put up with, because of her mother.

Anonymous said...

BISD favoritism has been going on for a long time. "You're a son or daughter of a board member? No problem, we'll have the school bus stop especially for you..." You're an athlete caught with marijuana? -This is very serious, don't do it again (hand mildly slapped)-now get back in the game and win!"
There is favoritism because there is absolutely no oversight of campus principals-they do what they please to whomever they please whenever they please. A few years ago, Pace HS principal Longoria was caught with assistant principal Gonzalez altering test documents' demographic info. by the test coordinator. Medrano ends up being transferred off the campus, no sanctions for either Longoria or Gonzalez. BISD business as usual. From the top down it all flows.
A billion dollars is a bit much, however. The judge should exercise more imagination in seeking injunctive relief. A stock and pillory, perhaps? Even better would be having the district on a campus level review Texas' professional code of conduct. The rules are all there regarding favoritism, consanguinity, etc. it's just that BISD chooses not to follow the rules and TEA long ago adopted a laissez faire stance towards independent school dstricts unless they do something really stupid.

Anonymous said...

She has lost her mind! A huevo she wants her daughter to be top 5. Her daughter is dumb as a rock. Hey Elia how about teaching them RESPONSABILITY and hard work. Tell them to step up and tell us who fled from the Police I your SUV. Tell your that eventually your weight (and it's alot) can't carry her like it did in elementary and junior high. Maybe you should have comadres at the high school like you did at the elemntary!

Anonymous said...

News from Da Blimp: Okay back to bed. Monday I took a hard fall. By chance I had an appointment on Monday with the physical medicine doctor. There was no swelling and no obvious broken bones. I just hurt. Yesterday was real bad, and right now my ribs, back, right side, and shoulders are killing me. Since nothing works for pain, I use sleep. Sitting in this chair is killing my back.

Anonymous said...

She is out of control.

Anonymous said...

I heard she is preparing a major lawsuit because her children don't receive enough "likes" on their Facebook.

Looking at her picture - se me antojo una barbacoa de puro cachete.

Anonymous said...

Wow the good ol USA, where you can sue anyone for anything, looks like its BISD fault for her kids being dumb, stupid and having no common sense? Really? Talk about LAWSUIT ABUSE.

Anonymous said...

Elia should sue Joe Rod. for 1 Billion dollars.

He is the only one in Browntown with that kind of money

Anonymous said...

Good thing the kids are adopted so they don't run the risk of looking like her physically,
but you know it will effect them morally and emotionally. Be careful if you are at Hanna
cause la marana will find someway to include you in the suit for not kissing up to her kids.
Elia, give it up! Everyone knows you for what you are not!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Judge Elia Cornhole Lopez is trying to defend her whiny brats and intimidate BISD. Her kids are spoiled brats and she believes she can sue the world to make them look smarter, more honorable "millenials" who deserve higher consideration by BISD because of her judicial position. And, to book she is playing the "race/ethnicity" card challenging a teacher's decision that may have benefited a non-Hispanic student. Now we understand why Cesar de Leon remains on the city commission after racist and bigoted statements against Blacks. Add the challenge to the Anglo interim fire chief and we are stating to see how prejudiced this community is. Elia Cornhole Lopez is a mole on the ass of this community.

Anonymous said...

Shut the fuck up Cindy Huerta Elizondo, you did the same shit for your daughter at Rivera and continue doing it at Veterans hs. Just ask all the teachers and students at River hs. you and your school board husband terrorize the principal to inflate the grades. You are the most hated family.

Anonymous said...

Well we all know that this will be settled out of court, now with the money she gets from our children at BISD, that she will be taking, at least we know that her brat of a daughter will go off to college in the expense of our children. So yes her daughter will have her college paid off, great job judge, for and if taking the monies always from our BISD children to benefit your beat of a daughter

Anonymous said...

Hey, why did Carl Montoya give Alarcon a second try after she failed her first interview for AA? ha ha everyone knows why...

Anonymous said...

(Ta pendeja Elia la vagina cangrejo!)

The sheer size of her!!!

Anonymous said...

Elia was at Veterans yesterday bitching at Principal Gallegos during the school day!

Anonymous said...

So Gallegos is dumb as a bag of hammers ask any staff thats worked for her.

Anonymous said...

Does Terry swallow?

rita