Six teenage refugees won a lawsuit Friday that would allow them to attend Lancaster’s McCaskey High School after school administrators allegedly diverted them into an alternative school.

The plaintiffs, who range in age from 17 to 21, claimed that they were subject to routine pat-downs and were not properly instructed in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) at the district’s chosen school, Phoenix Academy.

“The class moves fast and I don’t learn anything,” one of the students, a Sudanese refugee named Khadidja Issa, testified earlier through a translator this month.

Another of the plaintiffs, Somali refugee Qassim Hassan, testified that, “I did not find the school that I deserved.” Hassan’s father was killed by militiamen prior to his own relocation to Pennsylvania.

District officials had argued that Phoenix Academy was better suited to older refugee students than McCaskey, a larger and more traditional high school.

Federal Judge Edward G. Smith ordered the School District of Lancaster to enroll the plaintiffs at McCaskey, the main high school, if they so wish. He also ordered the district ensure the students’ language skills are properly evaluated and that they receive the necessary ESL instruction to allow them to become proficient in English.

“The plaintiffs are not seeking the creation of a new entitlement, or new and better schools,” Smith wrote, in his opinion. “The plaintiffs are seeking admittance into a program that currently exists, and that is specifically designed for students with their unique language needs.”

Furthermore, the judge ruled that the school must “ensure that the plaintiffs have equal access to the full range of educational opportunities provided to their peers, including curricular and non-curricular programs and activities.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which helped bring the lawsuit alongside the Education Law Center Rothschild on behalf of the students, praised Friday’s decision.

“Our refugee clients have lived lives of unimaginable hardship, and they are way overdue for a break,” one of the students’ ACLU attorneys, Witold Walczak, said.

Maura McInerney, senior staff attorney at the Education Law Center, said Friday’s decision would change the trajectory of the students’ lives by extending to them the opportunities they were entitled to.

“These students were thrown into a fundamentally inappropriate alternative accelerated program where they languished in classes they didn’t understand,” she said, in a written statement. “One of our clients was pushed through four years of high school in 18 months, without learning English or acquiring basic skills.”

Kelly Burkholder, a spokeswoman for the district, said late Friday that it would comply with the judge’s orders.

“Because of the late delivery of this order, we will meet with our council on Monday to discuss options,” she said, in a written statement. “After weighing our options, we will decide our best course moving forward.”

According to the judge’s order, the students would be allowed to attend McCaskey High School starting Monday.