LIVINGSTON COUNTY, Mich. – Michigan Civil Rights firm MARKO LAW, PLLC, announced a federal lawsuit filed against Pinckney Community Schools, Superintendent Rick Todd, and principals Janet McDole and Lori Sandula following years of a racially hostile environment and discrimination.
The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Michigan, alleges Black students have experienced racist, unfair, hurtful, and at times dangerous interactions at Pinckney Community Schools.
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The lawsuit also says district officials ignored the racism in the school and failed to take steps to stop racial discrimination.
The lawsuit also includes an extraordinary equal protection claim that the racial hostility and harassment experienced by all five students happened so often and in so many forms that it deprived them of equal educational opportunities. Some of the students subjected to the vile racism were as young as 11 and 12.
According to the lawsuit, some Black students were being called “Cotton pickers” while others were being called “Monkeys” by their White classmates.
The N-word has echoed through the walls of the school over the last 10 years, and officials said Todd knew about it.
The lawsuit said he and his administrators have failed to take any meaningful action to correct the behavior or end the racism.
The lawsuit said students and parents reported on multiple occasions being called the N-word, monkey, and cotton-picker.
Officials say the school did not review the incidents collectively to consider whether there was a problem with the school’s environment; instead, they considered each incident independently.
Even in the face of multiple complaints alleging racial harassment, the district never decided as to whether a racially hostile environment existed, which allowed racial minority students at the district’s schools to be subjected to severe, pervasive, and persistent race-based comments by multiple students at the school, including frequent use of the N-word and other derogatory comments based on race.
Officials said the disciplinary actions were insufficient to redress the hostile environment adequately.
The lawsuit said the district administrators tasked with investigating harassment complaints do not have proper training in this area. It also said that administrators failed to record the incidents of harassment accurately and failed to follow procedures.
The racism was said to have disrupted the learning for Marko Law’s clients, whose names are kept confidential for privacy purposes.
In response, the district disciplined Black children more severely than other non-minority students based on race. One time, the district refused to punish the harassers out of fear of labeling them a racist, while the harassed child was suspended for two days.
