ACLU sues over youth camp

In one case, a young man who spent most of his teen years in Los Angeles County probation camps was awarded a high school diploma - despite the fact he couldn't read or write. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

In another, teachers and administrators at Challenger Memorial Youth Center in Lancaster told students to leave classrooms to paint buildings and pull weeds - and then billed the state for instructional days as though the students were in class.

These and other allegations are outlined in a class-action lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and other legal groups filed Tuesday against the Probation Department and county Office of Education. The lawsuit alleges the practices at Challenger are among the "most egregious failures to deliver education and rehabilitative services to incarcerated youth ever documented in the nation."