By: Mikayla Holmes from everythinglubbock.com
A Dallas law firm sent a letter to Lubbock Cooper Independent School District Superintendent Keith Bryant on Thursday, saying in part, parents have concerns that their children were victims of racial harassment at Laura Bush Middle School.
The parents reached out to Ellwanger Law LLLP in Dallas to help them take legal action against LCISD for the discrimination and harassment they say their children experienced during the 2021-22 school year.
The letter claimed the students who experienced this harassment were deprived of “their Fourteenth Amendment constitutional right to equal protection and was in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
It also claimed that Black students were subjected to an environment where white students would call them racial slurs and derogatory terms such as the n-word, and monkey.
“Other times white students played whipping sounds on their phones anytime Black students walked by,” the letter said. There were also claims that Black students experienced acts of physical violence.
In April 2022, an Instagram account was made known that many parents deemed racist called “LBMS_m0nkeys.” The LBMS stood for “Laura Bush Middle School Monkeys.” It encouraged students to send pictures of “monkeys” referring to Black students.
The letter claims parents reported these issues to the principal, assistant principal, and several teachers.
Ellwanger Law gave LCISD 14 days to respond to this letter. If LCISD does not respond the law firm said they “will take that to mean that Lubbock-Cooper ISD does not desire to work with us towards an amicable outcome.”
Lubbock-Cooper ISD told EverythingLubbock.com in response to the letter, “Lubbock-Cooper ISD is unable to comment on private student matters.”
In April, Lubbock-Cooper ISD gave an official statement saying in part, “There is no place for racism, hatred, or harassment at Laura Bush Middle School or in the Lubbock-Cooper community as a whole. This behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”