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In Her Court, an Open-and-Shut Case

Christian Shows D.C. Schools Litigants That She's Serious About Safety

D.C. Mayor Marion Barry said he wanted to see for himself the legal battle that has led to a three-week delay in the start of the District's school year. And so, on Thursday, he walked into D.C. Superior Court in the middle of a hearing before Judge Kaye K. Christian and quietly took a seat in the courtroom gallery.

Christian, who had just scolded D.C. school officials for the continuing problems with leaky roofs, paused to recognize the mayor. She greeted him not as a VIP, however, but as the lead defendant in the case before her -- a lawsuit filed in 1992 by Parents United, an advocacy group that went to court to force the city to correct thousands of fire code violations in school buildings.

"The mayor -- who has never appeared here before -- is in the court," the judge announced.

"He is a defendant and should be in his rightful place at counsel's table. You may come up, sir, if you wish. You may have a seat at the table."

Barry moved to the front of the courtroom. The city's attorneys said he was there as an observer, not a participant. But Christian kept after him.

"Stand and state your full name for the record," she told him. Then she made Barry take an oath to tell the truth, in case she had questions for him.

As it turned out, Christian said nothing more to Barry. But she had shown him -- as she has shown everyone else in the case -- who is in charge of the schools litigation.

Christian, 44, herself a product of D.C. schools, has waged a three-year crusade to make the system safer for students. Under her watch, thousands of fire code violations have been corrected, and the city has been forced to spend millions of dollars it might never have expended.

Time after time, the judge has kept students out of schools with leaky roofs, broken boilers, faulty fire alarms and other safety violations. Her orders led to the shutdown of all city schools just before classes were to begin in 1994, stalled the opening of six schools last September and now are contributing to a three-week delay of the coming school year.

Christian -- who critics say is acting more like a fire chief than a judge -- has said she will not allow the opening of about 50 schools where roof work is still underway. The school system, as a result, has opted to delay the opening of all schools until Sept. 22. In a case affecting 78,000 District youngsters, the judge showed no signs of feeling pressure as she presided at hearings last week. She challenged fire inspectors and school officials about the progress of roof repairs, took notes and seemed unfazed by the fact that attorneys on both sides were trying to have her school-closing order overturned by the D.C. Court of Appeals.

That appeal failed on Friday -- another win for Christian, whom colleagues consider one of the most solid judges on the D.C. bench, to which she was appointed in 1990.

In backing Christian, Senior Judge Thomas R. Newman Jr., of the appellate court, admonished attorneys for the District government and Parents United.

"You want us to let schools open and require parents to send kids to schools in spite of the fact that some of them may be scared out of their wits about the presence of propane tanks and hot tar in front of their 6- and 7-year-olds?" Newman asked. "I have to be sensitive to the consequences of what you are asking us to do."

As other judges describe her, Christian is a jurist who demands as much of herself as she does of the lawyers who appear before her. During the summer, she required attorneys in the schools case to show up for weekly hearings to chart the progress of improvements, a tedious exercise in which files are reviewed on dozens of buildings. That is her way of holding school and fire officials accountable. Fire inspectors take seats in the courtroom's jury box and tell the judge what work they have observed and detail any safety issues. Christian conducts much of the questioning, at times cutting off the attorneys.

The judge has insisted in court that she is on solid legal ground in the case, and she hasn't wavered in what has become a fierce battle of wills with D.C. school Chief Executive Julius W. Becton Jr. and Charles E. Williams, the system's new chief operating officer.

Becton was hired by the D.C. financial control board in November as the school system's chief. The retired Army lieutenant general has vowed to usher in a new era of accountability and competence. He and Williams, a retired Army general, have made roof work and other repairs a top priority.

The judge in past years has refused requests from school officials to keep buildings open while repair work is taking place, even if construction areas are cordoned off. She has been so consistent on that issue that she repeatedly has wondered aloud why officials did not start this summer's repairs sooner. Work in most buildings did not begin until late July or early August.

If Becton and Williams underestimated the judge's resolve, they are not the first to do so. Key officials, including then-Superintendent Franklin L. Smith, made that mistake in 1994 when they thought Christian would let schools open on time if she saw that some work was being done. She did not.

Christian has been relentless in her questioning of Williams in court, taking issue last week with a report that roof work was complete at Shadd Elementary School, in the Capitol Heights area of Southeast Washington. City fire inspectors said they visited the school after a rainstorm and found numerous leaks.

"Perhaps the court should turn to General Williams," Christian said. "How does a completed roof show leaks?"

Williams said the new roof had been installed, and so the project was considered "100 percent" finished. After leaks were discovered, he explained, officials demanded more sealing. He and the judge tangled for 10 minutes over the meaning of "100 percent." Williams, of course, lost the semantics squabble.

"This certainly calls into question the percentages supplied to the court," Christian said. "The court can't credit this job at 100 percent."

She has a deep personal interest in D.C. schools. Her father, Robert L. Christian, who died in 1969, was a city elementary school teacher. Kaye Christian went to public schools, graduating from Dunbar Senior High School, near Logan Circle in Northwest Washington. And her son, Christian Washington, 12, is a student at Deal Junior High School, in the Tenleytown area of Northwest Washington.

Christian and her husband, Ernest Washington, live in Northwest Washington, where they are active in neighborhood affairs. The judge also teaches Sunday school at her church.

Her tenaciousness in the schools case brought her acclaim in past years from parents and community leaders who felt that her rulings were the driving force behind long-overdue school repairs. This year, however, there is a twist.

Instead of pleading poverty, or doing mere patchwork, as they have in the past, D.C. school officials have embarked on a $50 million improvements program that calls for roof repairs at dozens of school buildings. There is no backlog of fire code violations, and the roof repairs are meant to prevent trouble.

Christian, who declined to be interviewed for this article, prefers to let her written opinions speak for her. And there are plenty of them, including a biting one recently that rebuffed attorneys on both sides.

"This Court will not compromise the health, safety and welfare of students and staff at District of Columbia public schools," the judge wrote. "Without compelling evidence to the contrary -- that the schools are safe -- this Court cannot and will not blanketly deem them safe for the sake of convenience."

She wrote: "This Court understands the effect that its Order has on students, parents and staff. The Court, too, is personally affected by its ruling in that she is a parent of a District of Columbia public school student who attends a school which is undergoing massive roof replacement and is currently closed by Order of this Court."

The District's school leadership maintains that Christian is inflexible, and it has urged Parents United to drop its lawsuit to get the issue out of court. The parents group has refused to step aside, but its attorneys have agreed that schools could safely open on time if ongoing repairs were monitored carefully. So the two sides joined hands in challenging Christian's order before the D.C. Court of Appeals last week -- and on Friday they went down together in defeat.

Despite the inconveniences caused by Christian's most recent rulings, parents appear to be aiming their frustration at Becton, not the judge.

"She's making good, sound decisions," said Gwendolyn Griffin, whose 13-year-old son attends Deal Junior High. "Out of everyone, she is the one looking out for safety. . . . She's putting the children first."