Parents of four students expelled and suspended for circulating petition to 'bring back SLAVERY' sue Missouri school district for 'punishing them too harshly'
Parents of four students punished for circulating an online petition at their high school to 'bring back slavery' are suing a Missouri school district for 'punishing them too harshly,' according to a federal lawsuit filed on Friday.
Of the four freshmen at Park Hill South, who have not been publicly named, one was expelled while three others were suspended for 180 days, the remainder of the school year.
While officials at the Kansas City-area school district have not yet offered details about the petition, parents of kids who attend Park Hill South just northwest of Kansas City, Missouri were outraged.
It was posted online in September by students at LEAD Innovation Studio, which is part of Park Hill.
The lawsuit claims the racist petition, created by one student who titled it 'start slavery again' before posting it to Change.org, was created as a joke about slavery and needing a job, according to legal filings.
Pictured: Park Hill South High School, where four students were expelled and suspended after creating a 'joke' petition to bring back slavery
Nicole Price, pictured, said 'it was decided quickly. In order to make the Black Panthers stop showing up at the board meetings, to cause the parents to be quiet, these kids are gone'
Three other students who were punished commented 'I love slavery,' 'I hate blacks,' and 'I want a slave.'
The four students who were punished for the petition, all of whom played for the school's football team, are described as having diverse ethnic backgrounds; one is black and Brazilian, two are white, and another student is white and Asian, according to the lawsuit.
A fifth student, who is black, also was involved but not disciplined.
'The racial identity of the students is kind of across the spectrum. When you talk to all four of the kids, the extent of their experience when it comes to racial terror in the United States was Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks assignment during Black History Month once,' said diversity consultant Nicole Price, according to Fox 2 Now. She was hired by the parents of the suspended students as an advisor.
She said in the students' defense, the overly harsh punishment 'could change the trajectory' of their lives.
A 15-year-old black student at LEAD Innovation who heard an announcement over the school P.A. system in the wake of its discovery became ‘really upset,’ her adoptive mother, Julie Stutterheim, said.
Julie Stutterheim, pictured, is the adoptive mother of a 15-year-old black student who became 'really upset' after hearing an announcement over the PA system in the wake of its discovery
Students at Park Hill South High School just outside of Kansas City, Missouri circulated a petition calling for the reinstatement of slavery, according to district officials
'She said, "You know, you're white, Mom. So you don't really know what this is like."'
'And I said, "Yeah, you’re right",' Stutterheim told The Kansas City Star. 'And she just wanted to know that ... something was being done.'
Further details on that announcement have not been shared.
Stutterheim said that she attended a meeting on September 20 at LEAD Innovation, where the principal, Ryan Staley, told parents it was his understanding that the petition called for reinstating slavery.
Park Hill South High School has a student body that is 14.4 percent black and 63 percent white. As of last year, 1,906 attended.
As of 2019, the population of the school district stood at 71,541. Its K-12 student enrollment stood at 11,617. Of those, more than 67 percent are white, while 12.3 percent are African-American.
Hispanics make up slightly more than 1 in 10 students, according to district data. Just 3.5 percent of students are Asian while 5.5 percent are multi-racial.
The Park Hill South principal, Kerrie Herren, pictured, had told students that racist statements included in the petition were ‘unacceptable. The impact is being felt heavily within our school'
The petition was posted online by students at a nearby high school in the same district - LEAD Innovation Studio
Ryan Staley, the principal at LEAD Innovation, told parents at a meeting on Monday it was his 'understanding' that the petition called for the reinstatement of slavery
Nicole Kirby, a spokesperson for Park Hill School District, told The Kansas City Star that the issue is considered a ‘discipline incident’ which is why officials were not at liberty to share more details.
'We can't talk about specifics,' Kirby said.
'But we wanted to make sure that we responded and let people know that we don't tolerate discrimination or harassment.'
The Park Hill South principal, Kerrie Herren, told students that the racist statements included in the petition were ‘unacceptable.’
He said 'the impact of these statements are being felt heavily within our school.'
'We are outraged, hurt and saddened that this occurred,' Herren said in a statement to students.
'This is not who we want to be at Park Hill South. Our differences make us stronger.
'We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment.'
Kirby said that the district is following its guidelines in terms of which punishments to mete out for cases of racial harassment.
She said that district administrators have been doing ‘a lot of listening’ with parents and students.
'We've set up some opportunities for students and even parents to be able to share their feelings about this and to try to provide some support to them,' Kirby said.
'This is very much evidence that we have work to do. Because we have a commitment to creating an inclusive, welcoming environment where everyone feels like they belong.'
Administrators are planning to stage ‘listening tours’ through the district schools so that students and faculty alike can ‘heal from this’ and become ‘better in the end.’
'It is a very unfortunate situation, but we want to use this to become better, to become more inclusive, to become a more welcoming environment for our families and our students to all experience a true and genuine sense of belonging,' said Terri Daeyon, who heads the district's access, inclusion, and family engagement department.
'We cannot address things without knowing that they're there.'
'And so sometimes unfortunately it takes situations like this where we have opportunities for growth and opportunities to become better.'
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November 18, 2021
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