Equal Opportunity in the Fort Wayne Community Schools: A ...

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION. AND WELFAREOFFICE OF THE SECRETARYWASHINGTON, D.C. 20201Mr. William L. Taylor, DirectorThe Center for National Folicy ReviewSchool of LawThe Catholic University of AmericaWashington, D. C. 20017Dear Mr, Taylor:As agreed in my deposition of October 12, 1976, I have asked appropriatemembers of the OCR staff to review the files on:1. Fort Wayne, Indiana2. Sweetwater, California3. Pomona, Californiak. New Britain, Connecticut5. South Bend, IndianaThe files were reviewed with negative results. The only document whichwas submitted to me from those reviewing the files is the enclosed copyof a letter dated March 24, 1975 to a complainant in New Britain. Itmay be helpful to you.In discussing the matter of why a number of reviews appear to havepursued the issue of student assignment while the letter of findingsto the School District were silent on the issue, it was brought to myattention and I do recall that most of these case files were presentedorally to a panel of OCR and OGC staffers in Cleveland and San Franciscoin August and September 1975- In those cises where issues "."are notsustained ^oy appropriate evidence the respective regional offices wereverbally directed to disregard the issue. In other words the fileprobably does not contain any documents because the direction was givenorally.I hcpe this assists you in your findings.Sincerely yours,FREDERICK T. CIOFFIChief, Operations BranchElementary and Secondary Education DivisionOffice for Civil Eights36