Source: NICOLAS GUYONNET / Getty
A school district in Pennsylvania is being sued after a Black student claimed his teacher held up a photo of a monkey in class to humiliate him.
The suit claims that two brothers were discriminated against for their race at Cumberland Valley School District in Mechanicsburg.
According to the State, the teen was sitting in class when his teacher held up a monkey photo and compared it to another Black student. The teacher then turned to the Black student who filed the lawsuit and made another “derogatory” comparison, causing the entire class to laugh at their expense.
“It was such an emotional reaction that he had to being compared to a picture of a monkey that kind of … really started his reaction towards the school district,” the student’s attorney, Nicholas Miller, said in an interview.
The lawsuit also says the boy was moved to the front of the bus on the first day of school so he and other Black students could be monitored easily. The bus driver was also accused of telling the boy’s white girlfriend that she was “too good to be with someone like (the student)” because he was Black.
The young teen also had a learning disability that he never received help for, which caused him to become angry and frustrated with the school.
According to the lawsuit, while the boy was being targeted by his peers for his race, the school unfairly punished the Black student, while the white students were given lesser or no punishment at all.
From the State:
In 2022, the student received a text of a white student holding a gun and threatening the boy, according to the lawsuit. He confronted the student about the photo, the lawsuit said, and was suspended. The white student was not punished, and the incident was written off as “boys will be boys,” according to the complaint.
The following year, the teen got into another dispute with a student and was placed in an “illegal and criminal restraint hold,” the lawsuit said.
The Black teen’s little brother was also discriminated against while attending school in the district.
Miller condemned the school district, calling out its history of discrimination.
“They are so stoned in their beliefs that nothing needs to change, and they have ignored everything that has gone on within that small district.,” Miller told the State.
SEE ALSO:
Racist Text Messages Threaten Black Students Nationwide After Trump Win
Black Construction Worker Jessica English To Oversee Detroit People Mover Project
Teacher Humiliates Black Students By Comparing Them To Monkey Photo, Lawsuit Says
was originally published on
newsone.com
