## Facts

- The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) used standardized IQ tests and a cutoff score (below 75) to place students in “Educable Mentally Retarded” (EMR) classes.
- Several Black elementary-school students were placed in EMR classes based in part on these IQ test scores and alleged they were not mentally retarded.
- Plaintiffs submitted expert affidavits from Black psychologists who retested the children using methods responsive to the children’s cultural background (including rapport-building, rewording items, and crediting intelligent non-standard answers), producing scores above the cutoff.
- Statistical evidence showed Black students were substantially overrepresented in EMR classes (approximately 28.5% of SFUSD enrollment but about 66% of EMR placements).
- Plaintiffs alleged EMR placement caused severe educational and psychological harm, including a minimal curriculum, low teacher expectations, stigma and ridicule, and feelings of inferiority.
- EMR classification was recorded on students’ permanent records and could affect later opportunities (college, employment, military).
- At the time, state reevaluation procedures were infrequent (previously every three years; recently changed to annual review).
- Plaintiffs asserted violations of the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause and federal antidiscrimination law, including Title VI, and sought to stop IQ testing used for Black students’ EMR placement while the case proceeded.

## Issues

1. Whether plaintiffs showed a sufficient likelihood of success that using standardized IQ tests to place Black students in EMR classes was racially discriminatory in violation of equal protection and federal civil-rights law.
2. Whether continued use of the IQ tests for Black students’ EMR placement pending trial would cause irreparable harm warranting preliminary injunctive relief.

## Decision

- The court granted a preliminary injunction.
- SFUSD was restrained from administering standardized IQ tests to Black students for the purpose of determining EMR placement pending final resolution on the merits.
- The court found plaintiffs made a strong preliminary showing that the testing and placement practices likely produced inaccurate classifications due to cultural bias and yielded racially disproportionate EMR placements.
- The court found irreparable injury from the educational deprivation and stigma associated with EMR misclassification, including the lasting effect of permanent-record labeling.
- The balance of hardships and public interest favored preventing potentially discriminatory practices and avoiding erroneous labeling of children as mentally retarded during litigation.

## Legal Principles

- Preliminary injunctive relief is appropriate where the movant shows a strong likelihood of success (or serious questions going to the merits) and a risk of irreparable harm, with equities and public interest favoring relief.
- Statistical disparities, combined with evidence calling the validity of selection criteria into question, can support an inference of discriminatory impact sufficient for preliminary relief in an equal protection and civil-rights challenge.
- When an educational classification carries stigma, diminishes educational opportunity, and is recorded in permanent files with long-term consequences, the resulting harm may be irreparable and not adequately remedied by later correction.
- Reevaluation procedures do not necessarily eliminate irreparable harm when the challenged placement causes immediate educational and psychological injury during the period before review.

## Conclusion

The court preliminarily enjoined SFUSD from using standardized IQ tests to place Black students into EMR classes, finding substantial preliminary evidence of cultural bias and disproportionate impact, along with irreparable educational and stigmatic harms that outweighed administrative burdens and favored immediate protection pending a merits decision.


Larry P. v. Riles, 343 F. Supp. 1306 (N.D. Cal. 1972)