Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
COMPLAINT
Introduction
Jurisdiction
2. The Court has jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1331
because it involves a federal question.
Parties
governmental entity created pursuant to Alabama law. Phil Campbell High School is
a Franklin County school.
Facts
12. While MG was a student at PCHS, all of the teachers were white, all of
the administrators were white, all of the staff were white, all of his classmates were
white, and almost all of the remainder of the student body was white.
13. While Franklin County itself is roughly 90% white, at PCHS the student
body is less 1% non-white.
15. While the racial makeup of the student body and employees was similar,
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and there were a couple of racial incidents, they were handled appropriately by
administrators, and MG never experienced a serious racial harassment problem at the
elementary school.
16. Sadly, this turned out not to be true at the high school even though his
mother was an employee there.
17. At PCHS MG was subjected to harassment and abuse based on his race,
including one incident in which one of his teachers participated, yet school
administrators and the superintendent failed to take appropriate remedial action.
20. Defendant Riddle made defendant Odom aware of the ongoing issues.
23. In connection with her March 2018 complaint regarding MG’s treatment
during his class’s viewing of the movie 42, discussed below, MG’s mother made
defendant Hamilton aware of the ongoing racial abuse being suffered by MG.
25. As a result of the situation at PCHS and the damage it was doing to their
son and because Odom, Riddle, and Hamilton failed and refused to take action to
protect MG, MG’s parents removed him from the school.
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27. MG cannot play basketball this year because of his transfer status,
though he has been allowed to practice with the team.
28. MG’s mother is still employed at PCHS, though she was unexpectedly
moved from her counseling position into a teaching position on July 11, 2018, with
no explanation.
30. In October 2017, MG and a white student got in a fight in the lunchroom.
33. Roughly a month later, MG’s mother insisted that MG report the
harassment rather than depend on her to do it. Therefore, on November 13, 2017,
MG told defendant Riddle that in PE students would call him the N-word and a stupid
N-word and tell him he belonged in the cottonfield.
37. The very next day, November 14, 2017, MG was a target of a racial slur
by a basketball teammate while on the bus.
38. When MG spoke with defendant Riddle about what happened on the bus,
defendant Riddle told MG that if he was going to be a troublemaker that he needed
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to just turn his basketball jersey in, that they didn’t have time for trouble on a ball
team. Riddle told MG that if he couldn’t get along with other teammates, there was
no place for him on the team.
39. Defendant Riddle never took action regarding the racial abuse incident
on the bus.
43. MG’s mother spoke with Riddle regarding the unequal treatment, but
defendant Riddle was not open to hearing what she had to say.
48. The playing of the song continued until the end of the season in January
2018.
49. It was left to MG’s father to confront the basketball players, which he
did during the county tournament, asking the players if they were prejudiced against
MG because of his skin color.
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53. In May 2018, at the annual PCHS Award’s Day ceremony, MG received
several academic awards. Students sitting around him said things to him like “you're
still a stupid N-word” multiple times. One student even put chewing gum on MG’s
pants.
55. In October 2018, MG was disciplined more severely than two white
students for similar incidents in which school property received minor damage.
56. In October 2018, defendant Riddle also demoted MG from the 9th grade
basketball team.
57. During the 2017-18 school year, MG, as a 7th grader, played on the 9th
grade team. At the end of the school year, tryouts were held, and MG was again
selected to be on the 9th grade team.
58. When defendant Riddle took over the 9th grade basketball team in
October 2018, defendant Riddle demoted MG from the 9th grade team and promoted
to take his place several white students defendant Riddle knew had been harassing
MG.
59. It seemed like defendant Riddle was making a point of elevating MG’s
harassers over MG.
60. The most extreme incident occurred on or about November 15, 2018.
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61. On that date, a male student, SB, in front of numerous other students,
threw basketballs at MG, subjected MG to numerous racial slurs, showed other
students a picture of a noose, and told MG he was going to hang him.
62. MG’s parents did not learn about the incident until Sunday, November
25, 2018, after receiving calls from parents of some of the other students who
witnessed it. MG’s parents also learned that SB reportedly made a threat to shoot up
the school.
64. Because of the threat to shoot up the school, police were contacted and
interviewed SB at school the next day.
72. The failure and refusal of the individual defendants to protect MG from
continued harassing, intimidating, and racially-aggressive behavior of other students
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73. The individual defendants, pursuant to Board policy and law, were
responsible for taking action to protect MG from harassment yet failed and refused
to do so.
74. Each of the individual defendants acted as a final policymaker for the
Board.
75. As explained above, the Board and the individual defendants, acting
under color of state law, intentionally and purposefully discriminated against MG by
treating him differently because of his race and by permitting MG to be subjected to
a racially-hostile school environment, thereby depriving MG of rights guaranteed to
MG by the United States Constitution, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
Specifically, defendants discriminated against MG based on race in violation of
plaintiff’s rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and the Equal Protection Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment.
b. compensatory damages;
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79. Title VI, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, provides as follows: “No person in the
United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from
participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any
program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
81. Title VI liability arises when one or more school district officials who
have authority to take corrective measures in response to notice of student-on-student
racial harassment responds thereto with deliberate indifference and unreasonably in
light of the known circumstances.
b. compensatory damages;
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Jury Demand
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