DISGUSTING

Lawsuit Alleges That a Missouri School District Did Nothing to Address Repeated Racist Threats and Slurs

In a federal lawsuit, Tiffaney Whitt claims that Kearney School District officials did nothing when other students called her children the N-word and threatened them with violence.

A Missouri school district is facing its second lawsuit alleging racial harassment and discrimination against Black students, after mom Tiffaney Whitt claims that classmates repeatedly called her children the N-word and threatened them with violence, including lynching. School officials, Whitt says in the suit, did nothing. As The Kansas City Star reported, the lawsuit names the Kearney School District—whose student population is 91.5 percent white and 1 percent Black—and its bus service as defendants, with Whitt accusing the district of failing to adequately teach staff to “effectively and promptly end racial harassment.” In the suit, Whitt alleges that in addition to repeatedly hurling racial slurs at her sons, other students threatened to “kill them like ‘Emmitt Till’ and ‘hang them from a tree.’” School officials, the suit says, did not intervene when harassment occurred nor take disciplinary action against the alleged perpetrators.