A Georgia school district settled a civil rights lawsuit with an agreement to adequately respond to racial harassment incidents after two former Black students were called a slur by their cheerleading coach, but their parents are concerned district officials won’t earnestly implement those measures.
Antwishia Thomas and Cortese Walker filed two complaints on Jan. 15, 2020, against the Houston County School District after learning that a coach at Veterans High School, Daniel Satterfield, called their daughters the N-word twice during a cheer practice in October 2019.
Thomas and Walker told The Macon Telegraph that a junior varsity coach was the one who notified them about the slur. The coach confronted Satterfield, who “apologized” and said that “he was quoting lyrics to a song,” according to the investigative documents from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
Both parents reported the incident to the school administration. However, during an internal investigation, all the coaches told administrators that nothing “unusual” occurred at the practice, including the JV coach.
Thomas and Walker also told school leaders that Satterfield had a history of bringing up questionable and offensive race-based topics to their daughters, like making remarks about dark skin and calling Walker’s daughter’s name “ghetto.” The two girls were the only Black cheerleaders on the squad.
After the racial slur was reported to the school, Satterfield’s wife, the cheer squad’s head coach, Katie Satterfield, allegedly retaliated against both girls by denying them spotters for stunts and eventually deeming them “uncoachable.” The girls were kicked off the squad shortly afterward.
After the district learned that three cheer coaches who were initially approached about the racial slur lied when officials questioned them, the girls were allowed back on the squad. The school ordered all squad practices to be held on campus moving forward and coordinated an administrator’s presence at practices to monitor the team.
Thomas also reported the harassment to the Houston County Board of Education, but VHS administrators were the only officials who made contact with her and recommended measures that ended up isolating both girls and subjecting them to bullying from other students.
Although the district did issue a letter about the head coach’s professionalism and responsibility, the Civil Rights Office found no evidence that officials implemented “any corrective action or dialogue that focused on the head coach providing a nondiscriminatory environment,” court documents state.
Before the federal office completed its investigation, the Houston County School District reached out with an interest in resolving the complaint.
A resolution agreement was reached on July 17. It dictates that the school system must issue a statement on the district’s prohibition against racial harassment, train all school staff on race-based discrimination, and swiftly address all racial harassment reports, among other measures.
The agreement does not mandate the district to admit any wrongdoing or liability.
Thomas and Walker stated they felt the Satterfields were never held fully accountable for their actions and would have felt better if the district had apologized at the time the situation happened.
“They believe in protecting their own in terms of staff and administrators,” Walker stated. “It’s not about protecting the kids. The kids were villainized, and they watched it happen. They saw it happening, and they were quiet about it.”
Daniel Satterfield no longer works at Veterans High School. His wife, Katie, resigned as head cheerleading coach in December 2019 due to “health issues.”
“Their behavior was overlooked,” Thomas remarked. “There were no punishments. If a kid did anything that those grownups did, they would have been expelled immediately from school.”
Thomas added that the resolution might look good on paper, but she’s concerned the district won’t sincerely enforce the actions, which could leave potential future racial harassment incidents unchecked.
“Do I feel like they’re going to be making and implementing changes? There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re just going to toss it to the side,” Thomas said.
The Houston County School District released a statement following the resolution agreement.
“While the District cannot comment on employee or student matters, we are committed to making our schools safe and nurturing environments for all students,” the district said. “We reinforce this value by training all staff and students on harassment and bullying. If a student ever feels they were harassed, we encourage them to speak to a counselor or administrator. Our school district also uses Anonymous Alerts, which is a safe way to report any form of harassment in our schools. We will continue to focus on meeting the social, emotional, and academic needs of our students.”
