Iowa school district failed to protect Black student from racial harassment, feds say
The Ottumwa Community School District must create new programs for students and staff following a U.S. Department of Education investigation that showed officials failed to protect a Black middle school student from ongoing racial harassment.
The harassment during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years included students using racial epithets; a student using the term "KKK" and then referring to it as the "Kool Kids Klub"; and an incident where a white classmate "knelt on a Gatorade bottle in the student’s presence and said, 'It can’t breathe,'" in reference to the death of George Floyd, a Black man murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer, according to a U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights news release.
The letter from the federal officials outlining the incidents also reported that a student insulted the Black middle schooler, telling him “I can send you back to the cotton fields.”
The investigation showed the student's concerns were investigated, but little was done to follow up with him later to make sure the harassment did not continue, the Education Department letter to Ottumwa Superintendent Mike McGrory states.
Several of the students involved in the harassment were given in-school and out-of-school suspensions. The out-of-school suspension was for a student who showed a "pattern of behavior of racially insensitive remarks," the letter stated.
The "district’s failure to provide the student with a safe school environment caused him to suffer significant and enduring emotional harm," violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars people from being discriminated against under any activity or program that receives federal financial assistance, the release states.
Seven percent of the district's 4,861 students identify as Black, according to the Iowa Department of Education.
Several officials with the Ottumwa school district did not return requests for comment.
School district officials acknowledged the Office for Civil Rights agreement in a letter from Superintendent Michael McGrory to families.
The agreement will allow the school district to move forward with “systemic improvements to our policies and procedures to ensure equity for all of our students,” McGrory said.
“In the weeks to come, we will continue to review and train our staff on how to better identify issues of harassment and how to build a safe, supportive and collaborative culture,” he said.
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The U.S. Department of Education found officials in the district "disregarded its obligations to investigate whether its response to the reported harassment was effective in eliminating the hostile environment, whether it addressed the cumulative effect of the incidents on the harassed student, and addressed the impact the verified widespread conduct may have had on other students."
To settle the matter, district officials agreed to reimburse the student's family for expenses incurred for past and future therapy services "resulting from the racially hostile environment," publish an antiharassment statement, review and revise district policies, provide staff training "regarding the district's obligation to respond to complaints of harassment based on race, color or national origin," and have age-appropriate programs for students on how to "address harassment based on race, color, or national origin."
“Federal civil rights law has for decades promised that no student should experience the racially hostile environment that the young person in this investigation endured,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon said in the release. “I thank Ottumwa Community School District for committing today to take the steps necessary to ensure that in future it will respond appropriately to reports of racial harassment so every student in the district’s schools will experience the nondiscriminatory learning environment that federal law guarantees.”
Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or svhernandez@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @svhernandez or Facebook at facebook.com/svhernandezreporter.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ottumwa school failed to protect Black student from racism, feds say
