Amos and Tiffany Winbush said their children \u201chave endured unimaginable racism, physical and emotional trauma\u201d during their time at the Peck Slip School in New York City.
\nA Black family in New York City has filed a lawsuit against the city’s education department and leaders of a public school alleging that the school, district and city officials enabled and downplayed years of racism and bullying against the family\u2019s two children and failed to act on repeated complaints.
\nAmos and Tiffany Winbush said in a lawsuit filed Thursday that their children \u201chave endured unimaginable racism, physical and emotional trauma\u201d during their time at the Peck Slip School, a public elementary school in New York City. The Winbushes said their children are two of only a few Black students who attend the school, which is predominantly white.
\n\u201cTeachers and school officials have fostered, enabled, and perpetuated a racially hostile environment at Peck Slip, and that environment has emboldened students to harass and abuse the Winbush children physically and emotionally,\u201d the lawsuit said.
\nThe lawsuit accuses school officials of allowing the abuse against the Winbush children \u201cto continue semester after semester, even though Amos and Tiffany Winbush have complained ceaselessly.\u201d
\n\u201cFor years, the Winbushes have begged school administrators to intercede to stop the harassment and abuse their children are suffering, but their cries have consistently fallen on deaf ears,\u201d the lawsuit said.
\nThe lawsuit details seven years of allegations of bullying and racist incidents that the Winbush family says their daughter and son, who are now 10 and 5 years old, were subjected to. According to the lawsuit, the abuse has included multiple instances of white students ridiculing the Winbushes’ daughter over her hair and appearance, a student spitting in their son\u2019s face, both of their children being assaulted and kicked by other students, as well as a student ripping their son\u2019s shirt and threatening “to kill him” on several occasions.
\n“What do I say to a 10-year-old or a 5-year-old to make them not internalize these things?” Amos Winbush III told NBC News through tears. “That’s the part as a dad that breaks me.”
\nThe lawsuit names the New York City Department of Education; Board of Education of the City District of New York; New York City Community School District 2; and Peck Slip principal and assistant principal Maggie Siena and Casey Corey as defendants.
\nCorey did not respond to a request for comment. Siena and Kelly McGuire, the superintendent of New York City Community School District 2, referred requests for comment to the New York City Department of Education. The press office for the Education Department referred requests to the legal department, which did not immediately respond.
\nThe lawsuit alleges that the defendants violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 14th Amendment by discriminating and retaliating against the family. The lawsuit requests a jury trial and seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
\nLance Clarke, an attorney representing the family, said they also want \u201csystematic change.\u201d
\n\u201cWe need accountability and action,\u201d he said.
\nThe Winbush family said in the lawsuit that they reached out to school officials repeatedly to stop the harassment, but have been met with \u201cindifference\u201d and even retaliation.
\n\u201cIt is unimaginably painful for a parent to know that their child must attend a school where they will be exposed to racism and daily threats,\u201d the lawsuit said. \u201cThis persistent abuse, and school officials\u2019 indifference, has had a demoralizing impact on the Winbush family.\u201d
\nThe Winbush family said in the lawsuit that their daughter is now in therapy \u201cto help her cope with the trauma and psychological injury she has suffered\u201d and that they had to seek medical care for their son \u201cand provide him extra emotional support following the vicious assaults on him at school.\u201d
\nWinbush said that earlier this month his attorneys sent a letter to school officials, district officials and the Department of Education to request a meeting to discuss the ongoing harassment.
\nThe letter said that the Winbushes \u201chave submitted complaint after complaint of incidents of discrimination and harassment, but the Peck Slip School and District 2 have failed to ensure the Winbush children receive a basic right to education in a place that is safe and free from discrimination,\u201d according to the lawsuit.
\nWinbush said no one has yet responded to the letter from his attorneys.
\nHe said that instead, the school principal and assistant principal pulled his daughter aside to discourage her from making additional complaints and told her that her experiences were \u201chard to believe\u201d because they differed from that of other students, according to Winbush and the lawsuit.
\nWinbush said he and his wife felt compelled to file the lawsuit after years of inaction from school and education officials. He said the family has met with school officials and reached out to others at the district and city level.
\nWinbush said he believed the next step he had to take was to file a lawsuit so his family could \u201chave a voice\u201d after being met \u201con the school level, on the district level, on the Department of Education level with denial, refusal, indifference and racism directed to us.\u201d
\nWinbush said he and his wife think about taking their children out of Peck Slip \u201cevery day,\u201d but he does not want to send the message to his children that \u201cwhen adversity hits them, that they needed to run and leave it unfinished and never actually reap the benefits of seeing that change actually happen.\u201d
\nHe referenced reports that New York has been found to be the most segregated state for Black students and said that even if they switched schools \u201cwe can\u2019t unzip the Blackness that we walk around with every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nbcnews<\/p>\n
Tags:allege<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amos and Tiffany Winbush said their children \u201chave endured unimaginable racism, physical and emotional trauma\u201d during their time at the Peck Slip School in New York City. A Black family in New York City has filed a lawsuit against the city’s education department and leaders of a public school alleging that the school, district and city […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[1569,1842,1408],"class_list":["post-5984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-city","tag-racism","tag-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5986,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5984\/revisions\/5986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}