California School District Sued Over Alleged Racial Bullying
The lawsuit says repeated slurs and a racist classroom lesson left the boys with PTSD after the district failed to act on complaints.
- Daphne Hawkins filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Redlands Unified School District in March, alleging her 7- and 10-year-old sons faced recurring racial harassment and dehumanizing slurs at Mariposa Elementary School.
- Tensions escalated after a December 2024 classroom lesson introduced "Black Pete," a Dutch holiday character often depicted in blackface, which classmates subsequently referenced in teasing comments toward the Hawkins children.
- Students repeatedly called the boys "mud" and "tar ball," while one child was told during recess to be in a "Black African monkey show," according to the lawsuit.
- After Daphne and Channing Hawkins brought concerns to the RUSD board in March 2025, the lawsuit alleges the district failed to implement a written safety plan or separate the offending students.
- Mariposa Elementary enrolls 435 students, of whom only 1.6 percent are Black, while a district spokesperson stated that Redlands Unified takes concerns involving discrimination and student well-being seriously.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Black America Web
California School District Sued Over Alleged Racial Bullying That Gave 2 Black Elementary Students PTSD
Source: SolStock / Getty A lot of people assume racism will die off with older generations, but we keep coming across stories that indicate racism has been passed down to much of the youth, namely the Caucasian youth, as the racial bullying of Black students seems to still be a common occurrence. In Redlands, California, a Black mother has filed a lawsuit against a school district, alleging that her two children faced such vicious racial harassm…
California School District Sued Over Alleged Racial Bullying
Source: SolStock / Getty A lot of people assume racism will die off with older generations, but we keep coming across stories that indicate racism has been passed down to much of the youth, namely the Caucasian youth, as the racial bullying of Black students seems to still be a common occurrence. In Redlands, California, a Black mother has filed a lawsuit against a school district, alleging that her two children faced such vicious racial harassm…
'You Should be in a Black African Monkey Show': California School Let Students Terrorize Two Black Boys for Months Until Both Developed PTSD, Lawsuit Says
The mother of two Black elementary school children filed a civil rights lawsuit against the California school district whose officials she alleges failed to protect her sons from months of severe racial harassment from other students, despite her repeated complaints. Daphne Hawkins says classmates subjected her 7- and 10-year-old sons to a racist curriculum, dehumanizing racial slurs and racialized insults on a near-weekly basis at Mariposa Elem…
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