Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, located in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, has filed for bankruptcy and is now asking the court to approve measures in continuing the school’s academic program.
Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, located in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, has filed for bankruptcy and is now asking the court to approve measures in continuing the school’s academic program.
TiZA has requested the bankruptcy judge’s permission to continue paying the salaries and benefits of employees as it continues to reorganize under the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy it filed originally, according to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.
The school’s legal troubles begain in 2009 when the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a lawsuit against the school as well as the state Department of Education and Islamic Relief, on the grounds that taxpayer money was being used to promote religion.
TiZA’s bankruptcy attorneys are now attempting to balance the ACLU lawsuit, which is being requested to move toward a resolution, and the school’s reorganization as it attempts to survive post-bankruptcy.
“How can TiZA adjust its religious accommodation policies if it doesn’t exist anymore?” Shamus O’Meara, the school’s lead counsel, told the news source. “It’s pretty nonsensical to try to push those claims forward.”
TiZA officials and lawyers will have to wait and see how the bankruptcy court will make its decision with the ACLU lawsuit still in the mix.
