Trial begins over Birmingham police use of pepper spray in schools

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A federal lawsuit charging that the Birmingham, Alabama Police Department uses excessive force against students in the city's schools is headed to court Tuesday.

CBS affiliate WIAT reports that the trial stems from a lawsuit filed in 2010 by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of current and future Birmingham city school students.

The civil rights organization says that police assigned to the schools routinely use pepper spray on students in violation of their constitutional rights.

The trial was expected to get underway at Hugo Black United States Courthouse in downtown Birmingham.

In 2013, WIAT reported that a judge declined to dismiss the lawsuit one week after several students at Jackson-Olin High School were pepper sprayed by police.