The parents of five Michigan students have filed a lawsuit alleging that Livingston County education officials failed to take action after their children were subjected to racial slurs and other derogatory comments.According to CBS News, the complaint was filed on behalf of the families by Mark Law attorneys. All of the parents’ claims relate to incidents that allegedly occurred at Navigator Upper Elementary School and Pathfinder Middle School, both within the county’s Pinckney Community Schools district.The defendants include district Superintendent Rick Todd, Navigator Principal Janet McDole, and Pathfinder Principal Lori Sandula.The complaint broadly asserts that the children were called names like “cotton-pickers,” “monkeys,” and the “N-word,” and were told that they didn’t “belong” in Pinckney.Several of the students also said that they received race-related death threats.Education officials purportedly knew about these interactions, but “turned a blind eye” and didn’t “meaningfully address the racism.”

Upclose shot of stop sign on school bus; image by Robin Jonathan, via Unsplash.com.

CBS News notes that, of the 2,332 students enrolled across the district, 92.3% are white.Black students in Pinckney schools, the lawsuit says, “have suffered emotional trauma and substantial disruption to their education.” Some have since left the district “out of fear for their physical, personal and educational well-being.”Attorneys for the plaintiff families claim that the district violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “because it effectively caused, encouraged, accepted, tolerated, or failed to correct a hostile environment, based on race, of which it had actual or constructive notice.”The lawsuit also suggests that P.C.S. violated provisions of the 14th Amendment.In one incident, narrated by the family’s attorneys, a student was called a “dumb black kid” in front of a teacher, who did not respond to the insult or attempt to discipline the offending child.Later in the year, the same student who had been called a “dumb black kid” was pushed a “harasser,” with the confrontation escalating into a more violent physical assault.The student who reported being harassed, the lawsuit says, was suspended for two days.Todd, the district superintendent, said that Pinckney has yet to be served with the complaint and cannot comment on pending litigation.“I just learned of this filing this morning via media [and] as I have not yet received any official notice and, at this time, am not at liberty to speak on behalf of the lawsuit,” Todd told CBS News. “Thank you for understanding.”

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Lawsuit alleges Black students were racially profiled, called slurs in Livingston County schoolsLawsuit alleges racial harassment, discrimination at Pinckney Community Schools