According to The Voice, the Michigan Department of Civil Rights has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights seeking an order prohibiting the use of Indian nicknames, mascots, chants, and imagery.
Continue reading...An Ohio federal district court has granted a school district’s motion for summary judgment in a suit brought by the parents of a high school student who committed suicide, claiming that the student was repeatedly subjected to peer bullying and harassment in violation of her Fourteenth Amendment substantive and procedural due process rights, Fourteenth Amendment equal protection rights, Title VI and Title IX rights, and under Section 1983 related to a municipal liability claim based on the failure to train.
Continue reading...A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled that a New York state school district is liable under Title VI for student-on-student harassment based on race and color, upholding a $1 million reduced jury verdict.
Continue reading...The Times-Picayune reports that in following up on a complaint by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice will be investigating whether the Jefferson Parish school system discriminates against its Latino students.
Continue reading...A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in a 2-1 split, has ruled that individual school administrators and school board members are entitled to qualified immunity from a suit brought by a group of African-American students’ parents alleging that the defendants violated the students’ equal protection rights by acting with deliberate indifference to student-on-student racial harassment.
Continue reading...Student Doe 1 v. Lower Merion Sch. Dist., No. 10-3824 (3d Cir. Dec. 14, 2011) Abstract: A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (PA, NJ, DE, VI), with one judge filing a concurring opinion, has ruled that a Pennsylvania school district’s redistricting plan that makes use of racial demographics does [...]
Continue reading...A Minnesota federal district court has ruled that an African-American student has stated a valid a Title VI claim for a racially hostile environment against the school district, but not the superintendent in his individual capacity. The court rejected the student’s Section 1983 equal protection claim on the ground that it was too vague to provide the defendants with sufficient notice of the alleged unconstitutional conduct.
Continue reading...The U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Justice (DOJ) have issued new guidelines replacing a 2008 document that essentially warned colleges and universities against considering race at all, reports the New York Times. For kindergarten through 12th grade, the guidelines tell school districts that they can shape policies on locating schools, drawing attendance boundaries and governing student transfers to achieve a better racial mix.
Continue reading...A federal district court in Pennsylvania has granted a school district summary judgment in a suit brought by a group of current and former African-American students who claim they were identified as disabled and placed in special education based on their race in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After reviewing the record, the district court concluded that the students had failed to present evidence that the procedural irregularities they cited were related to their race.
Continue reading...According to Courthouse News Service, Quera Pruitt, an African-American student at Red Wing High School, has filed a class action lawsuit in federal court alleging Red Wing School ISD No. 256 allowed students at Red Wing High School to hold “Wigger Days” for homecoming , the word stands for “white nigger,” during which white students wore clothes and acted in what “from their perspective, mimicked black culture.”
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