November 4th 2023.
The family of a Black 8th Grade student at St. Joseph School in Kentucky has taken the school and the Diocese of Covington to court. According to the lawsuit filed on October 30th, their daughter endured months of racial discrimination and harassment from the school.
Jamir Davis, the family's lawyer, spoke to The Daily Beast and said that this malicious abuse has left the young girl with lasting mental health issues. He said, “She is scarred for the rest of her life because of these incidents.”
The lawsuit states that the student's ordeal began when she was called a racial slur by a classmate after she refused to provide answers to their assignment. When the girl reported this incident to the school administration, they allegedly failed to take any action. The girl's mother told The Daily Beast that the school had promised to investigate and discipline the student responsible, but this never happened.
The racial harassment was then taken to the next level when the girl's English teacher repeatedly used a racial slur in class. The teacher told the students that they must be careful who they say the slur around because they could find themselves “ex’ed out of society”. Other students in the class spoke up, and some even went to the school administrator, but nothing was done.
The situation further escalated when the same English teacher denied the Black student communion during a school-sponsored Mass. This prompted the family to file the lawsuit, which names the church, teacher, administration and diocese as responsible for the bullying. The family is seeking statutory and punitive damages.
The lawsuit claims that this is the story of a “brave, Black girl standing her ground against the biggest bully at her school, her teacher.” In response to the lawsuit, the Diocese of Covington released a statement denouncing racism and discrimination. The statement read, “The teaching of the Catholic Church is clear: Racism is a moral evil. The Catholic Church and the Diocese of Covington work to oppose and root out racism wherever we encounter this radical evil, especially in our Christian minds and hearts.”
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