A Minooka, Illinois, high school is under fire after students alleged they faced racial harassment from their peers, an experience their parents say is all too familiar.
The students, identified as Grace and Morgan, who attend Minooka Community High School, said an unidentified classmate started playing a whipping sound from her phone on Nov. 1 and pointed at them, according to CBS News. One of them asked her to stop but was called a racial slur.
“Then she proceeded to tell me, like, ‘Get away from me, you monkey,’ in front like of the whole class,” Morgan told the outlet.
The duo reported the incident to a school officer and later to their parents. Per the outlet, Grace’s mother said she filed a police report and set up a meeting with school officials. It’s unclear if the student faced any consequences.
TeSaxton Washington, Morgan’s mother, said her family has had a similar experience in the past. In 2019, a student told her son, who was a senior at the time, that he was going to “lynch” him, CBS News previously reported. She sued the school district but settled two years later.
“For us, this is a nightmarish déjà vu,” Washington said to the outlet. “It’s obvious that nothing my son or I did moved them to try to make any positive changes for the future generations, and I’m not going to deal with that.”
The parents decided to bring the issue to Grundy County Court and were given an “emergency stalking no contact order,” per the outlet. According to WomensLaw, the order could last between 14 and 21 days.
In a statement to CBS News, the school district said that it takes “all allegations of racial harassment very seriously.” However, the students disagree.
“We shouldn’t feel like were in danger, or we’re being harassed, and we know the school can’t do anything about it – or they don’t want to do anything about it,” Grace added, according to the report.
