Justice Department and Tennessee school reach agreement after investigation into racial harassment

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An east Tennessee school district has agreed to make changes after a federal investigation uncovered several cases of racially motivated harassment, including when students staged a mock “slave auction” to sell black students to their white peers.

The Justice Department announced the settlement on Monday after informing the school district in 2023 that it would launch an investigation. According to a press release, the district said the school administration had “been deliberately indifferent to known racially motivated harassment at its schools, thereby violating the right to equal treatment of black students.”

The investigation was prompted by a lawsuit filed by the mother of a student identified only as “KR” who reportedly bore the brunt of the harassment. The lawsuit was settled earlier this year.

Both the lawsuit and the Justice Department found that KR was the victim of racial harassment 12 times during the 2021-22 school year, often involving “public humiliation in the common areas of his school,” such as when he was handed a drawing of a Klansman riding a monkey and when he went into a restroom to find a white student holding a mock slave auction in which KR was “sold” to the highest bidder.

“No student should have to endure mock slave auctions or racial slurs that are meant to recall a shameful period in our country’s history when black people were treated as subhumans,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

While the Justice Department said Monday that the school district cooperated with the investigation, the settlement report also said the school district “disagrees with the agency’s findings and conclusions regarding the allegations of racially motivated harassment and/or violence and does not believe that it or its representatives acted with willful indifference.”

“Our school system is – and always has been – focused on serving and protecting all students regardless of race,” said Hawkins County Schools Superintendent Matt Hixson. “As such, we have entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice to continue to pursue these goals, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Department in this regard in the future.”

According to the settlement with the Justice Department, the school has agreed to eight changes to be implemented over the next few years, including hiring a compliance officer to monitor complaints of racial discrimination and harassment. Other reforms include setting up a reporting portal to track complaints, updating the school’s racial harassment and disciplinary policies, training staff to recognize and respond to racial harassment and discrimination, and informing students and parents how to report harassment and discrimination.