Lawsuit Settled Over Liberty Bell Spanish Immersion Program

Monday's school board meeting may bring closure to an ongoing civil lawsuit involving Southern Lehigh's Spanish Immersion program.

The suit, which involved a Quakertown family's entry into Liberty Bell's Spanish Immersion program, was brought by a family on behalf of their 6-year-old daughter, identified by the initials S.G.

The brief states that the family was in the process of relocating to the , and waited overnight for one of the coveted slots in the program. Each year, the program takes only 29 new students. Over the past few years, with rules about when you are allowed on school property and how the slots were given out.

The family claims that they were in the process of moving to the Southern Lehigh School District, but left the country to visit Argentina. The mother claims that Liberty Bell school principal Sam Hafner told her that she had until Aug. 31 to establish residency.

According to the district bylaws, students must be residents at time of enrollment. After returning to the United States, the mother claims that she was informed in a phone conversation with Hafner that there were concerns brought up by other parents about residency. The family established residency April 16, but the child wasn't accepted into the program and was moved to the end of the waiting list. The brief states that this action caused irreparable harm to their daughter "as they had been planning her attendence in the [Southern Lehigh] district's Spanish Immersion program since 2008."

Though the board voted to allow the president to settle, no mention was made about what the settlement entailed. At the time of this writing, attorneys for the district and the family involved were not available for comment.