California districts sue city of Tustin over Marine base land dispute

Escalating a dispute over land at the closed Tustin, Calif., Marine base, two overwhelmingly Latino school districts in Santa Ana have sued the city of Tustin

alleging that the city's base reuse plan violates their students' civil rights. "First they didn't want our students on the base; now they want to give us land that will be harmful to our students, parents and employees," said John Palacio, a board member with the Santa Ana Unified School District. Negotiations between Tustin and the school districts fell apart last week amid accusations by the districts that the city's final offer included land in the base that was highly contaminated.