In a complaint, the parents of five pupils enrolled in Livingston County schools say that other students used racial slurs and offensive remarks to their children. They further claim that school administrators did nothing to stop this behavior.
This week, Marko Law filed a complaint alleging discrimination against students at two schools in the Pinckney Community Schools district: Navigator Upper Elementary School and Pathfinder Middle School.
The filing was directed at the school district, Superintendent Rick Todd, Principals Janet McDole of Navigator and Lori Sandula of Pathfinder.
According to the lawsuit, kids at these schools were informed they “don’t belong” and called names like “cotton pickers,” “monkeys,” and the “N-word.”
Additionally, the lawsuit claims that students have received death threats because of their race and that the school district “turned a blind eye” and failed to “meaningfully address the racism” in spite of knowing about these contacts.
The lawsuit states that 92.3% of the 2,332 children enrolled in Pinckney Community Schools are Caucasian.
According to the lawsuit, one Pathfinder Middle School student experienced physical assault, offensive remarks, and harassment during the 2022–2023 school year.
She also tried to avoid other kids’ attention by hiding in the halls and waited for them to leave for class before going down the hall. After that, this kid would receive a written warning for arriving late to class.
A second kid claimed that they had also been subjected to racist epithets while attending the middle school in the 2021–2022 academic year. The lawsuit claims that on December 8, 2021, a student heard someone say, “Wakanda forever my brother,” alluding to the 2018 Marvel film “Black Panther.”
This second student claimed to have witnessed white students making fun of an Indian student at this same time by asking whether they “could put a red dot on their forehead.” The parent of the second student stated that on December 9, 2021, they informed Sandula and Todd about the harassment.
After the second kid got into a fight with another student around two months later due to racial discrimination, school administrators punished the student who had reported being harassed.
The parent of that student scheduled a meeting with Todd and Sandula for the following month, but it is said to have been canceled and never took place. The rest of the year and into 2023 saw more altercations and racist remarks.
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According to the lawsuit, students at Navigator Upper Elementary School were distributing notes with the phrase “N-word pass” on them, which “purported to give the kids a pass to say the N-word.”
The principal received the note that the instructor had intercepted. The district indicated that it looked into the occurrence. After that, the parents of the third youngster were not informed, and other classmates persisted in calling the student derogatory names based on race.
The parents allegedly called the father of the other child to inform him that his child was calling their child the “N-word” after reporting the bullying to the school and receiving no response.
The father claimed that the school had not informed him of the incident. When the plaintiff’s father questioned his son about the incident, the son acknowledged using the “N-word.”
McDole allegedly told the father, “she did not want to bring negative attention to the situation or for the children to be labeled racist,” when the father questioned the school about why they hadn’t told him about this, according to the lawsuit.
The teacher was allegedly dubbed “a dumb Black kid” in front of yet another student; the lawsuit claims the teacher did nothing in response to this.
The lawsuit claims that after the same student was subjected to racist taunts later in the year, the targeted student pushed the harasser, who then choked the kid. A two-day suspension was imposed on the student who reported harassment.
Pinckney Community Schools is accused in the case of violating Title VI because it “effectively caused, encouraged, accepted, tolerated, or failed to correct a hostile environment, based on race, of which it had actual or constructive notice.”
