White New Jersey student grabbed black classmate’s backpack by the strings and said, ‘I have a slave on a leash,’ lawsuit alleges

Two black people say their former highschool in rural New Jersey had an “extreme, egregious, pervasive” racist culture that forced certainly one of them to drop out to flee hostility and discrimination.

According to the New Jersey Herald, two former North Warren Regional High School students have filed a lawsuit in the District Court of New Jersey against the school, its board of education and 4 district employees.

They say they experienced a culture of racism for years that was so “ingrained” in the North Warren Regional School District that they were subjected to intolerance, ridicule and intimidation that was “allowed to take root and flourish.”

Both plaintiffs, a black woman and a black man who attended the school in 2016 and 2018 respectively, testified that other students continuously called them the N-word and other slurs, to which school officials didn’t respond.

In one momenthe told in the lawsuitA black student testified that in 2016, a white student grabbed her by the strings of her backpack in the hallway in front of other students and said, “Look, I have a slave on a leash.”

Not only did the incident leave her “terrified,” but when she reported the matter to the school’s anti-bullying coordinator, Tina Richie, the coordinator allegedly tasked her with creating a curriculum for brand new students.

According to her claims, after she joined the school’s cross-country team, her teammates recurrently hurled racial slurs at her and refused to stop when she confronted them. Her hair was also the subject of attention and unwarranted harassment. According to the lawsuit, several students made fun of her hair since it was different from theirs, and a teacher once asked her if it was a wig in front of her classmates.

According to the grievance, a black student alleges that in October 2018, a white student called him a “slave” while he was changing in the boys’ locker room at a gym and then hit him in the back of the leg with a belt, causing him to suffer a laceration.

That same yr, students approached him and showed him a poster urging him to affix the “KKK,” which they called the “Kool Kids Club,” he claims.

During his time on the school wrestling team, his teammates repeatedly called him slurs, even in front of his coach and other faculty members. Some students even created a Snapchat group in 2021 where they discussed what slurs to make use of against him.

“The horrific reality was that multiple students at the school routinely called (the black student) the N-word and did so with ease as they passed each other in the hallways, in the cafeteria, on the bus, in class, and at sporting events,” the grievance reads.

The lawsuit also details other horrific incidents he experienced on the team. During one match, one other wrestler compared him to George Floyd. During one other wrestling match, his teammates knelt on the floor, made a black power fist check in imitation of former football player Colin Kaepernick, then modified their hand signals and did a Nazi salute, which they found “amusing,” the lawsuit states.

In one other incident that was also “subject to entertainment,” a black student’s teammates tackled him to the ground while giving a Nazi salute, and certainly one of them “pretended to rape him.” The lawsuit says the incident was recorded on someone’s cellphone.

The student’s mother spoke to wrestling coach Kellen Bradley multiple times to get him to handle the harassment and assault, but to no avail. According to the grievance, Bradley only responded “generally” to her complaints and took no motion to stop the harassment or punish the bullies.

The spite and bigotry that Black students experienced caused them great distress and mental anguish, based on the lawsuit. The Black student desired to drop out of highschool in 2020 but stayed when the COVID-19 crisis moved classes online. She will graduate in 2022.

The Black student quit the wrestling team on February 14, 2022, and withdrew from the school on February 28, 2022, several weeks after his mother filed a formal HIB (harassment, intimidation, abuse) grievance.

The district’s then-superintendent, Sarah Bilotti, later notified the student’s mother that six students had been suspended after the district found they’d violated the school’s HIB policy. The parent then met with multiple administrators, asking for a plan and timeline to stop racial harassment at the school, but then-principal Jeanene Dutt told her, “No,” the grievance said.

Dutt is currently the superintendent of the North Warren Regional School District.

In response to the lawsuit, she issued a statement saying, “Out of respect for students’ rights to confidentiality, we cannot comment to the press other than to say that we respectfully disagree with the claims and intend to defend against them in court.”

The lawsuit names Dutt, Tina Richie, Sarah Bilotti and Bradley as defendants, alleging they knew the school was rife with racist behavior that “transcends all bounds of human decency” but did nothing to stop it.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs are looking for unspecified damages for severe mental suffering and physical and psychological injuries.

North Warren Regional School District is positioned in Blairstown, New Jersey, greater than 50 miles west of Newark, and serves students in grades seven through 12. During the 2016–2017 school yr, it had 879 students.

The Herald reports that the black student was certainly one of five black students in her class and certainly one of 18 black children at the school when she enrolled in the district in 2017. When the black student enrolled in the school in 2018, he was certainly one of only two black children in his class and certainly one of 19 at the school.