Racism and hate ‘are not tolerated,’ Kearney school leader says after harassment suit
The Kearney school district remains committed to fighting racism and improving equity and inclusion, the superintendent said after a lawsuit was filed against the district alleging severe racial harassment and discrimination.
“This year, serving as your Interim Superintendent, has only reinforced my conviction that KSD is one of the best public school systems in the region, state and nation. Most of our students received a truly world-class education. But ‘most’ isn’t good enough,” Interim Superintendent Todd White said in a letter to the community on Thursday.
The district is responding after a former student, who is Black, filed a lawsuit detailing several incidents where he was bullied and harassed while attending Kearney High School, including having racial slurs thrown at him and being threatened with lynching. The student’s family claims administrators were repeatedly told about the discrimination and failed to protect the student.
The family moved the student out of the school due to the ongoing harassment, according to the lawsuit filed in Clay County Circuit Court this month.
Many community members have called on the district to do more to stop racial harassment and discrimination in schools following the new lawsuit.
For example, the lawsuit says that the Black student was told by a white female classmate that she would have “all the whites in Kearney beat your ass.” When a teacher overheard the conversation, the Black student was sent to the principal’s office, where the principal told him to ignore the white student’s conduct because she was poorer than he was.
The student’s sister also faced racial harassment in the district, according to the suit, which says she was called the N-word in class in junior high school. She reported the conduct to a teacher and principal. Administration allegedly told her that it would be dealt with at a future date because the accused student had a football game, and his dad was a coach.
Also, last year Tiffaney Whitt, the mother of two former Kearney students, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, saying she pulled her children from the district due to racial harassment. One of her sons received a threat referencing lynching victim Emmett Till, and she said her family received death threats and had maggots placed in their mailbox.
In his letter on Thursday, White did not specifically address either situation, but wrote that this week he was reminded, “from multiple incidents, that we must continue to ensure every child can learn in an environment free from racism, sexism, bullying, and any other form of harassment or discrimination.
“This work is urgent and important. The job of a community is to prepare its students to become productive members of society who are capable of reaching success in numerous ways. Anything that gets in our way of achieving this desired outcome is simply unacceptable.”
White said that like every public school system in the country, Kearney is “grappling with the lingering impacts of systemic racism.”
The Kearney school district’s student population is 91.5% white; only about 1% of students are Black, according to the state education department.
Several years ago, White said that the district formed its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, and students created clubs aimed at fostering conversations about harassment and discrimination in their schools.
In 2019, he said the district changed some harassment policies, reached an agreement with the NAACP and hosted more conversations on race.
“The work that you have begun is noteworthy, important and incomplete,” White wrote. “I encourage you to continue this most important work. Collectively, you make KSD a place where racism and every other form of harassment, discrimination and hate are not tolerated.”
This story was originally published May 19, 2022 at 3:25 PM.
