Responsibility of School Districts

In Judy Peet's article, she talks about Nancy Wadington who sues her school district for "pain and suffering" from being physical abused by students for being a lesbian. A similar situation occurred at my high school my senior year only someone was suing the school district over racial issues instead of gender issues. I'm from Ithaca and Ithaca has prided itself on being very accepting of all peoples so of course this was surprising news. An African American girl was called racial slurs on the school bus over a five month period of time on the way to and from school. The bus driver said he told the kids to sit down and be quiet and held all of the kids accountable for what was going on. He filed behavioral referrals on some of the students involved. The girl's mother filed a Human Rights Violation saying the school district never did anything to help her daughter and administrators did not take meaningful action. She wanted $100,000 in compensation for her daughter's pain and suffering. The Ithaca City School District appealed the violation saying that the Human Rights Commission did not have jurisdiction over the school district. Of course, people were extremely angry over the appeal. After the appeal, things became dangerous at school.

Students began disrupting classes in nonviolent means of protesting. There were fights during school between students and members of the Ithaca community in conjunction with students charged and rioted the district administrative offices. The violence got so bad, that we had "optional" school days. We had lockdowns that lasted for hours during school when protestors surrounded the building. The police were stationed at school for days on end to mediate students. Students from Ithaca College (white and black) also got involved and fueled the riots; when I arrived at school one day, there were nooses hung all over the trees on the high school campus . It was very shocking to the students and to the local community. (The case is still being settled in court).

In response to this case, Martin Luther King's book, "Chaos or Community" is being reprinted on behalf of Ithaca. Ithaca will receive 5,000 copies and every single student and staff member in the school district will receive a copy of the book. The book is basically full of class lesson plans created on the basis of race and diversity. It just goes to show that even in areas where people pride themselves on being diverse, there is still hidden racism and discrimination.

Sarah