The Atlanta Board of Education on Monday approved a $500,000 settlement with a parent who filed a lawsuit claiming the principal at her child’s elementary school separated students by race.
In 2021, Mary Lin Elementary School parent Kila Posey filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Posey said she requested a specific teacher for her daughter, but the school’s then-principal, Sharyn Briscoe, said the class wasn’t one of two second-grade classes designated for Black students at the largely white school. Briscoe and Posey are both Black.
Mary Lin is one of the district’s highest-performing elementary schools. Roughly 9% of its students are Black.
Posey ran an after-school program at Mary Lin, and her husband worked there as a school psychologist. She said she filed the complaint because of retaliation against her family by Briscoe, whom Posey said canceled the program’s contract at the school. The Office for Civil Rights also investigated a complaint Posey made into whether the school’s actions concerning her daughter violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars school districts that receive federal money from discriminating based on race.
The settlement approved by the board says:
“In January 2023, the Club After School and Kila Posey filed a lawsuit against Atlanta Public Schools in the United (States) District Court for the Northern District of Georgia alleging various violations of federal law. In order to settle all claims in the lawsuit, which are disputed, in the interest of avoiding litigation and other associated expenses, and without admitting any liability, the parties have negotiated a full and final settlement of this matter.”
The board also tentatively approved a budget of $1.84 billion for the upcoming fiscal year, which included cutting 187 central office positions.
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