The mother of two biracial high school students filed a federal lawsuit last week accusing a Pennsylvania school district of racial discrimination against her sons over the past four years.
The oldest boy, a senior at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, experienced racial discrimination and bullying on his first day of high school when he and his friend got on the bus and “were singled out for being African American” and made to sit at the front of the bus, so the driver could monitor their behavior, treatment that no white students received, the complaint says.
At the time, the plaintiff, identified as John Doe 1, had a white girlfriend. The driver “went out of her way” to tell the girl that “you are too good to be with someone like [John Doe 1],” apparently because he was Black, according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Jan. 24.
During a math class in his sophomore year, his teacher allegedly held up a picture of a monkey and compared it to his classmate, who is African-American, then made similar “derogatory comments” about John Doe 1, as his peers laughed.
The event caused John Doe 1 severe emotional trauma and impacted his behavior and learning experience, the lawsuit says, but the school district never informed his mother, identified as Jane Doe, about the incident. She only found out about it two years later while reviewing records she had requested.
“It was such an emotional reaction that he had to being compared to a picture of a monkey that that kind of … really started his reaction toward the school district,” the student’s attorney, Nicholas Miller, told McClatchy News.
The complaint says John Doe 1 became angry and confrontational after being treated differently due to being African American, and as a result school staff treated him “as though he was just an ‘angry Black youth.’”
The school, which has an enrollment of 3,000 students and is 4 percent African-American, did not recognize that John Doe 1 has multiple learning disabilities and provide him with assistance through a proper individualized education program (IEP), the complaint says. Instead, they had him repeat the same courses again and again, while white students with learning deficiencies or with the same neurodivergent disorder as John Doe 1 did get such assistance, including IEPs tailored to their needs.
Meanwhile, his younger brother John Doe 2, a sophomore at the school, was also experiencing racial harassment and bullying, the complaint says.
White students repeatedly made derogatory racial comments to him, and one white student kept touching his hair over a two-week period despite his requests to stop. When he finally complained about it, the white student was not disciplined, the lawsuit claims.
In March of 2022, a white student allegedly sent a photo via text to John Doe 2, of the white student holding a gun and stating that he would beat John Doe 2’s “everloving a–.” John Doe 1, who decided to stick up for his younger brother, was suspended for confronting the white student about the photo, while the white student received no punishment for sending the threatening text. Instead, the gun image and threat of violence were “just written off as ‘boys will be boys,’” the lawsuit says.
John Doe 2 felt dehumanized, objectified, and ultimately “emotionally defeated” by the mistreatment. He, too, got in fights and was punished, but those fights were related to the racial discrimination, bullying and harassment that was directed at him, his lawyers claim.
None of the students who harassed her sons were ever disciplined for their actions, according to his mother, Jane Doe 2.
The racially hostile, discriminatory and bullying environment at the school caused the boys to experience anxiety, anger, fear, depression, headaches, trouble sleeping, PTSD, low self-esteem, fear of retaliation, and feeling disconnected from others in the community, the lawsuit says.
It accuses the school principal, school board chair, district superintendent and other Cumberland Valley School District staff and administrators of racially discriminatory actions and “deliberate indifference” to the racially hostile environment in the school.
Because the plaintiffs were denied the same educational experience and other benefits to which they are entitled and which their white counterparts receive due to their race, the lawsuit contends that the school district violated Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act, as well as the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Additionally, the lawsuit accuses the high school’s assistant director of public safety, Timothy Froelich, of unlawful restraint and false imprisonment.
According to the complaint, in September of 2023, after John Doe 1 was trying to discuss a dispute with his peers, Froelich “placed him in an illegal and criminal restraint hold” after deeming him a threat “only because he was Black and upset.”
Miller told McClatchy News that the security officer placed the teen in a “full Nelson headlock,” which is “considered to be illegal because … it can cause tremendous damage to somebody.”
The level of restraint used by Froelich was unnecessary and risked serious bodily injury, the plaintiffs argue.
John Doe 1 was given a three-day suspension for the incident in which he was attacked by a school official and was cited by Silver Spring Township for disorderly conduct despite video evidence to the contrary, the lawsuit says.
The plaintiffs seek a jury trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages in their favor against the defendants, as well as legal costs.
The Cumberland Valley School District did not respond to a request for comment from Atlanta Black Star about the lawsuit.
The district, which has received numerous complaints from students and parents over its handling of racism and bullying incidents over the past several years, is litigating another racial discrimination lawsuit filed by the parents of a Black cheerleader in November.
In that case, the teen girl described humiliating bullying incidents, including being pressured by her teammates while staying in a Florida hotel room during a competition to get on all fours and act like a “pet” animal while they filmed her.
The lawsuit claims school staff was aware of the incident and advised her not to tell anyone, including her parents. When the parents eventually found out about it and complained, they said the district mishandled the investigation and also improperly dismissed their daughter’s other claims of bullying and discrimination.
On Jan. 24, the Cumberland Valley School District filed a motion to dismiss that case, arguing the plaintiffs failed to state plausible Title VI and equal protection claims against the district and that individual administrators and faculty members sued have governmental immunity against negligence-based tort claims.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Wilson denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss as moot, noting that the plaintiffs’ motion to file an amended complaint was previously granted. That amended complaint is due to be filed by March 26.