ACLU accuses Oshkosh Area School District of failing to address racial harassment at Merrill Middle School

OSHKOSH - The ACLU of Wisconsin said Thursday it has filed a civil rights complaint against the Oshkosh Area School District, asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate what it called the district's failure to address or investigate the racial harassment of two Black students.

The complaint to the department’s Office of Civil Rights says the students, a sixth-grade girl and a seventh-grade boy who are siblings, were subject to persistent racial harassment while attending Merrill Middle School in the district and that several Black students, including the seventh-grade boy, were expelled after a harassment incident.

“The Oshkosh Area School District has an obligation to thoroughly investigate incidents of racial harassment occurring at its schools, but instead, the district has chosen to expel the Black students who are being subjected to harassment,” said attorney Elisabeth Lambert, Equal Justice Works fellow with the ACLU of Wisconsin.

In response to an interview request by The Northwestern, the school district released this statement:

"To date, the Oshkosh Area School District has not received any complaint filed

by the ACLU and therefore is not in a position to comment further on any such complaint. The district, however, does maintain a specific policy for addressing matters of pupil discrimination and to date, no complaint under this policy has been filed by the ACLU or by the family referenced in their press release.

"The district can confirm that the ACLU has appeared in a student expulsion matter and that upon full hearing by an independent hearing officer, a student was expelled for endangering the property, health and safety of others while at school and for repeated rule violations. The ALCU did appeal that decision to the State Department of Public Instruction, which upheld the expulsion decision.

"The district remains committed to providing a safe environment for all students and takes any claims of discriminatory acts very seriously."

The Northwestern is not identifying the two students.

The seventh-grade boy experienced racially disparate punishment at school, including for minor things such as putting his head on his desk, the ACLU of Wisconsin said in its statement that detailed the complaint against the district. The sixth-grade girl also experienced persistent racial harassment and was targeted by a student who she claims harassed her daily and called her the N-word.

When the students' mother brought the harassment to the attention of school officials, they didn't investigate and instead ignored the students' claims, the ACLU said.

The situation escalated at a Halloween dance last fall when the same white student who harassed the girl instigated a conflict with a group of Black students by throwing water on them and calling them racial slurs, according to the complaint.

The other Black students, including the sixth-grade girl, voiced their frustration at the incident because the seventh-grade boy was punished, but the student who harassed them was not.

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Seven Black students were later referred for expulsion as a result of the incident. School administrators also called police and referred juvenile charges against the two siblings, as well as other Black students. The white student was not punished by administrators, nor were charges referred to the police, the ACLU said.

At the seventh-grade boy's expulsion hearing, the school board official overseeing the hearing said the racial harassment that took place wasn't relevant to the boy's expulsion, the ACLU said.

Lambert said she hoped the Office of Civil Rights would investigate the incidents of racial harassment and force the district to address the harm caused by creating a plan that would prevent racial harassment in the future.

"The district's duty is to provide a school environment where all students can safely learn and thrive, regardless of their race," she said.

The complaint also asks the federal agency to force the school district to expunge the seventh-grader's expulsion, clear the sixth-grader's behavior record related to the incidents, review its policies and train its staff on handling racial harassment and discrimination issues.

This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Oshkosh Area School District is target of ACLU complaint on harassment