PHILADELPHIA - Bi-racial students alleging racism at Northwestern Lehigh Middle School lied about its response to their claims, the school district is claiming in court documents.
Northwestern Lehigh School District filed on April 21 a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by five students and their mothers that alleged the kids were subjected to being called the N-word and f--got during the 2023-24 school year. One student had teachers blow a whistle in his ear to keep him awake.
The plaintiffs filed suit in January in Philadelphia federal court. Among the allegations was that one student suggested a plaintiff's group team in science class be called the Nuclear (N-words).
NWLSD said it paid for two third-party investigations in response to complaints from the plaintiffs.
"Tellingly, Plaintiffs fail to reference and attach the 'Investigation Reviews' to their amended complaint and instead erroneously claim they have 'no actual independent knowledge of the School District Defendants' responses despite their participation in and receipt of the Investigation Reviews," the motion says.
Two of the plaintiffs and their mother were interviewed on Feb. 27, 2024 - 18 days after the mother reported teachers blew a whistle in T.C.'s ear and forced him to run outside of class to keep him awake.
Her complaint said he was disciplined seven times for falling asleep in class, but NWLSD said only three of his 16 discipline referrals were related solely to sleeping. On one occasion, T.C. said he was tired because he stayed up late, but his mother said his medications make him drowsy.
The investigation resulted in the interviews of around 10 members of school staff and a safety plan, class changes, conferences with his mother and a special education evaluation.
The investigation report faulted the school for blowing the whistle and making him run, though NWLSD says three of four individuals present at a meeting with the mother believed she agreed to it.
"Moreover, the rationale was that T.C. is a student-athlete (he plays basketball), and the staff believed these were good techniques to motivate him to stay awake/alert in class," the motion says.
"The School District admits these techniques were atypical, but when reviewed with all available information, they fall incredibly short of deliberate indifference to a violation of a constitutional right."
The complaint said the student body at NWLSD is only 1.5% African American, and it wasn't until 2021 did it hire a Black teacher. That teacher later sued the district for racial discrimination and settled in June 2024.
Another mother said her three children were also discriminated against and it wasn't addressed. Instances of the N-word on a school bus led to a fight, and it was alleged a student took one kid's Chromebook and put the N-word as its background.
The complaint alleged deliberate indifference by the school district in failing to react, but NWLSD said it took the allegations seriously.
"The School District Defendants investigated each report of racial harassment," the motion to dismiss says. "But for one incident wherein an offending student was not punished, all offending students were disciplined."