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Catholic school beats racism complaint after Black girl's hair cut during class

PENNSYLVANIA RECORD

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Catholic school beats racism complaint after Black girl's hair cut during class

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Cox Jr. | Facebook

HARRISBURG - Parents who alleged racism when their daughter's hair was cut during school because a piece of Velcro was stuck in it have possibly lost their lawsuit.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Daryl Bloom on Oct. 30 granted the motion to dismiss of St. Margaret Mary School of Harrisburg. Darin and Julia Smith sued the Catholic school in January after a portion of their eight-year-old daughter's hair was cut.

The Smiths, who are Black, said their daughter has "long black wool hair" in which a piece of Velcro became entangled in November 2023. This happened during Joseph Codispoti's music class.

"Instead of this being brought to (her parents') attention regarding how they wanted to handle the incident... Mr. Codispoti took it into his own hands by cutting the Velcro out of A.S.'s hair," the complaint said.

A.S. lost 20 inches of her hair, the Smiths claimed. She had 23 inches before, as maintaining long hair is part of her "African American heritage and culture," the suit said.

The white Codispoti cut her hair in front of a mostly white class to humiliate her, the suit says. It says A.S. now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and is in therapy.

The Smiths asked the school to switch A.S.'s music teacher and homerooms but those requests were denied, leading to the lawsuit. It alleges violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and other claims.

Magistrate Judge Bloom rejected the Civil Rights Act argument in his order. The plaintiffs were required to show A.S.'s membership in a protected class, an adverse action against her in pursuit of her education and A.S. was treated differently than similarly situated students not in her protected class.

"In our view, these allegations fall short of asserting facts that give rise to an inference of discriminatory animus or deliberate indifference," Bloom wrote.

"Rather, the amended complaint appears to simply inject words such as 'intentional' and 'discriminatory' without including any facts to suggest or from which we can infer that Mr. Codispoti's actions were intentional or discriminatory."

Finding the Title VI claim fails, Bloom declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state law claims like breach of contract and battery. He is giving the plaintiffs 20 days to file an amended complaint.

Anthony Cox, Jr., represents the Smiths.

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