The Lafayette Parish School System is facing a federal lawsuit over its Schools of Choice lottery.

LPSS Schools of Choice, now known as Magnet Academies, holds a lottery each year when applicants are randomly picked through a computer system. This is done when there are more applicants than seats available in the academies.

The lawsuit was filed by Azadeh Yazdi, the former marketing and recruitment coordinator for the Schools of Choice.

Yazdi claims that LPSS staff rigged the lottery and made the final decision of who would get in the system.

The suit alleges that the selection was made based on favoritism of “race, color, friendship, relationship by blood or marriage, and even whether the persons were children of members of the employment group of the Lafayette Parish School Board as well as whether the ones applying in the lottery had siblings already in the lottery.”

The Schools of Choice program was presented to the federal court in an LPSS desegregation suit from several years ago. It was set up so “all persons would have equal opportunity in the school system, without regard to race, color, or creed,” and “to continue racial and socioeconomic balance at various school sites where the schools of choice programs were set up.”

Therefore, tampering with the lottery picks violates the Schools of Choice lottery system as well as federal law.

News 10 reached out to LPSS but they say they cannot respond to pending litigation.