A mother filed a lawsuit against a South Carolina school district and three high school employees who allegedly tried to suppress her daughter’s complaints of racial discrimination.
Crystal Dozier sued the Horry County School District on behalf of her 17-year-old daughter for racial discrimination, harassment, defamation, and retaliation as well as Principal Nick Harris, Assistant Principal Mary Price, and English teacher Krysten Webster who are all white employees at Green C. Floyds High School.
According to the complaint, the discrimination started when Dozier’s daughter wanted to join the school’s tennis team last summer.
However, her request to join was never answered by Webster, who served as the team’s tennis coach.
All of the team’s members at the time were white females. Dozier’s daughter is Black.
When Dozier interceded, Webster allowed her daughter to join.
However, Webster “allowed all the other girls” to use Dozier’s daughter as “‘target practice’ throughout each day’s practice,” according to the complaint.
On Aug. 25, 2023, Dozier’s daughter approached Webster to complain that she was being racially discriminated against. Webster tabled the discussion later that day and invited the assistant principal Mary Price and a student of Indian descent with similar complaints to the meeting.
During that meeting, Webster allegedly “got argumentative” with Dozier’s daughter and “berated her…disregarded her concerns of race discrimination…attempted to stifle her complaints…and verbally assaulted her,” the complaint states.
Dozier later met with Price and Principal Nick Harris after her daughter called her to the school. Both Price and Harris claimed her daughter had been “aggressive and violent during their earlier meeting.”
Price and Harris also “attempted to stifle all complaints of race discrimination” and prevent Dozier and her daughter “from making any complaints to the district, stating they do not allow any race discrimination complaints and that they do not see race at Green C. Floyds High School.”
What Price and Harris didn’t know is that Dozier’s daughter had recorded the earlier meeting she had with Webster and Price in which Price claimed she had been “aggressive and violent.” When her mother approached the assistant principal about those “defamatory statements,” Price “immediately admitted her deception and apologized.”
In September, Dozier wrote a letter to the Horry County School District and the school board to complain of racial discrimination.
After the letter was sent, Dozier’s daughter started getting bullied at school. When she reported the bullying to Price, the assistant principal “allowed the bullying to continue,” the suit states.
Her daughter had to “endure walking down the hallways of the school with teachers saying ‘shame on her’ for having made complaints of racial discrimination.”
A district official later performed a “perfunctory investigation” and determined there was bias, but that Webster “did not know any better.” No conclusions were given in the lawsuit about Price’s or Harris’ behavior.
Dozier withdrew her daughter from the school in January 2024.
The suit seeks a jury trial to determine damages and remedial action for the emotional distress Dozier’s daughter suffered.
