Two sisters have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against a Kentucky school district, claiming classmates repeatedly bullied and harassed them over their race, and that school administrators were aware but did nothing to stop it, according to reports.
The legal action, filed in state court in August and spotted on the federal court docket this week, seeks an unspecified amount of damages, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The older sibling bringing the legal claim recently graduated from Madison Southern High School, while the younger girl is enrolled there as a junior.
The suit claims Principal Brandon Watkins and other administrators failed to act in various racist incidents toward the girls, which “resulted in the condoning of a racially hostile environment at Madison Southern High School.”
Four students are also named as defendants in the matter, along with Madison County Schools Superintendent David Gilliam.
The sisters, who are Black, received emails from peers who used the N-word at least 300 times, the lawsuit alleges. Hundreds of other exchanges on social media also revealed racial slurs and threats specifically targeting the younger girl, according to the lawsuit.
At the time, school administrators discussed the incident on the school’s Facebook page, describing it as “a terrible and unacceptable incident that happened on social media this week.”
“This incident includes behavior that does not and will not be representative of our school or community. As a school and a district, it simply will NOT be tolerated,” the post said.
In May, four Madison Southern High School students were charged with sending harassing communications on social media, although school administrators declined to identify them or provide additional details about the incident, the Herald-Leader reported.
Notably, court records show that at least two of the four students named in the lawsuit also face separate criminal charges for online harassment.
Lawyers for school officials have responded to the suit, saying “these Defendants acted in good faith, without malice, and within the scope of their duties as a public entity. These Defendants, as a public entity, are not liable for the acts or omission to act while exercising reasonable due care in the execution of any law, public duty, or responsibility.”
The allegations of harassment go far beyond racist messages sent over the internet.
The older sister and her father once went to the principal to report that the N-word had been scrawled in one of the school’s bathrooms, but the slur wasn’t removed for another eight months, the suit states.
Further, the filing also claims school administrators continually turned a blind eye to complaints that some students were regularly coming to school dressed in clothing that featured Confederate symbols, which violates the dress code.
After seeing another student repeatedly wearing a Confederate flag hat, one of the sisters complained to a school administrator, who told her there was nothing that could be done about it, according to the lawsuit. That’s when the girl took it upon herself to address the matter through conversation, the Herald-Leader reported.
The student agreed not to wear the hat again but showed up the next day in a Confederate flag sweatshirt, the lawsuit states. The girl then took her concerns to a teacher, who told her she was being “dramatic,” the Herald-Leader reported.
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