Two Alabama parents are suing a preschool for racial discrimination and retaliation after they say their then 2-year-old — the only Black pupil in his class at the time — kept getting disciplined far more often than other students and was eventually expelled.
In 2021, Lee and Aletta Williamson enrolled their son in Heritage Preschools, a private Christian day care system in Homewood, Alabama, when he was 2 months old, according to a lawsuit filed last month.
The majority-white school takes children as young as 6 weeks old, and they can attend until they’re 6 years old. The Williamsons’ son attended through July 2023, when he was expelled — a move the family considers retaliation for complaining about discrimination.
The family “thought they could trust Heritage to care for and educate their child because Heritage holds itself out as a family-owned school that ‘provide[s] safe, loving, Christ-centered care.’ They were wrong,” according to the complaint.
The Williamsons began noticing issues last May after their child got promoted to the class of a teacher identified in the lawsuit as Caroline Harmon based on his developmental progress, the document says.
The child “hardly ever” got into trouble before May 2023, when he was switched to Harmon’s class, but the lawsuit claims the teacher “immediately began writing up ‘behavior reports’ accusing [the child] of misbehavior.”
The Williamsons received around 30 behavior reports about their son’s behavior within a three-week period, according to the lawsuit, which also accuses Heritage of punishing Black kids for behavior for which its other non-Black students don’t get punished – like “sitting under a desk,” for example.
Harmon’s assistant teacher secretly told the Williamson about the discriminatory discipline, and the parents met with administrators, who placed the child on “the preschool equivalent of probation” for four weeks rather than addressing the parents’ concerns.
Harmon continued to single out the child for discipline during that period, and when it ended, “the Heritage administrators told [the] parents that they would be removing [their son] from the school because of his behavior, as reported by Ms. Harmon,” according to the lawsuit.
At first, the school gave the Williamsons two weeks to find alternative care, but administrators changed their tune when the parents “complained of discrimination and threatened legal action,” the lawsuit claims.
“Heritage retaliated by kicking him out the same day,” according to the document.
“You don’t know what it felt like to hear them tell us that [their] job is to keep [their] teachers safe and the other children safe,” Aletta Williamson told AL.com. “He’s a baby. He is a baby.”
Other Black Families Complained About School’s Discrimination
The suit also claims the school was well aware of the “discriminatory discipline” since at least 2021 but allowed it to continue.
A CBS affiliate station in Birmingham, Alabama, covered a story in January 2023 “detailing abuse, neglect and discriminatory discipline” that had taken place at Heritage Preschools, according to the complaint.
“These are small boys, these are literal children,” the Williamsons’ attorney, Artur Davis, the Williamson’s attorney, told AL.com.
“When you take on the role of educating and training preschool children, you’re assuming a difficult task and responsibility. We understand that. But when you exercise your authority one way for little white children, and you exercise your authority another way for little Black children, particularly Black boys, that’s a violation of the law,” Davis told AL.com, adding that his office has also gotten other reports of discriminatory behavior from other Black families.
The CBS affiliate story included a mom named Briana Merriweather, whose Black son attended a Heritage school. Merriweather, who told the outlet that she felt the school treated her child like a stereotypical violent Black child while treating other students as “just a little hard to deal with,” said her son reported a teacher hitting him and telling him to “shut up,” according to the complaint.
The child soon began having nightmares, wetting the bed and behaving erratically.
“Ms. Merriweather recounted that Heritage officials accused her son of calling a teacher by an inappropriate name. When she asked to see video footage of the incident, officials initially agreed to the request but then backtracked, telling her that it would be better if the facility simply ‘separated’ from the family,” according to the Williamsons’ lawsuit.
Heritage Preschools’ CEO, Larry Vann, told AL.com in a statement, “Heritage Preschools has very high standards that we hold ourselves to. We take these allegations very seriously. We are looking forward to the opportunity to refute the allegations contained in this filing, which is currently being addressed by our attorneys. We do not comment on pending litigation, however, we adamantly deny these allegations and we are looking forward to vindicating ourselves in the court of law.”
