What’s at stake Ensuring that seemingly “neutral” school dress and grooming codes do not discriminate against students on the basis of race, gender, or cultural identity. Summary This case challenges a discriminatory dress and grooming code administered by a Texas public high school. The case was filed in May of 2020 on behalf of students…
What’s At Stake Safe and equitable schools for Black students and students with disabilities. Summary For his entire year as a sixth grader at St. Anselm’s Abbey School, classmates harassed “John Doe” because he is Black and autistic. They publicly called him race- and disability-based slurs, including “burnt chicken nugget,” “n*gger,” “brown monkey,” and “autistic…
What’s at Stake What protections federal and Michigan civil rights law provides student victims of racial harassment. Summary The Malick family lived in Sanilac County, Michigan, which is overwhelmingly white. Their daughter, “C.M.,” is Black. While a student at Croswell Lexington School District, C.M. was subject to relentless racial harassment by her classmates. Students called…
In 2021, Lee Williamson and Aletta Williamson enrolled J.W., their Black and biracial toddler, in Heritage Preschools—an overwhelmingly white, private Christian preschool system in Alabama. For his first two years, J.W. had a positive experience at Heritage and rarely got into trouble. But things quickly changed when the school advanced J.W., who was by then…
“John Doe,” an asylum-seeker attending elementary school within the School District of Philadelphia, was harassed by classmates based on his perceived sexual orientation and national origin. His mother, Leslie Hernández, encouraged John to ask his principal for help. Rather than provide support to stop the harassment and protect John’s education, the principal threatened to call…
This federal civil rights case involves the tragic death of Nigel Shelby, a Black, out gay freshman at Alabama’s Huntsville High School who died by suicide at age 15 after experiencing unchecked LGBTQ+ harassment and race discrimination at school. Nigel never felt safe at Huntsville High School. Students subjected him to anti-gay slurs nearly every…
Public Justice and Nichols Kaster represent students of color and their families in a civil rights lawsuit against Duluth Public Schools Academy d/b/a Duluth Edison Charter Schools that seeks to hold the public charter school system accountable for subjecting black and biracial students to a discriminatory and hostile education environment based on their race. Students…
This is a civil rights and negligence case against a West Virginia school district and sheriff’s department on behalf of a biracial high school student assaulted with a blade after the school district ignored repeated reports of racial cyberbullying and threats by her attacker, a white female student with a history of violence. Our client,…
This federal civil rights lawsuit was filed by Lisa Shively on behalf of her daughter, T.S., a 17-year old Jewish girl who stopped attending public school in Northeast Ohio after enduring over four years of anti-Semitic and gender-based harassment with virtually no intervention by school officials. T.S. was one of the few Jewish students in…