An alarming complaint filed Tuesday with the state Human Rights Commission alleges that Twin Valley Middle High School administrators failed to protect a Black student from months of racist bullying, harassment and threats.
The complaint, filed by the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and an attorney with the law firm Hausfeld LLP, alleges that Twin Valley administrators “failed to take any actual, tangible, or meaningful steps to protect” the anonymous student.
“For school administrators to ignore multiple, credible reports of racist abuse, as they did in this case, is completely inexcusable,” Lia Ernst, the ACLU-VT legal director, said in a Tuesday press release.
Barbara Anne Komons-Montroll, superintendent of Windham Southwest Supervisory Union, which includes Twin Valley, pushed back on the allegations.
“We are committed to eliminating racism from our schools and have worked to establish an inclusive learning environment for all of our students,” Komons-Montroll said in a written statement on behalf of the Twin Valley School District. “The district condemns racism.”
Komons-Montroll vowed to “zealously defend our actions before the Human Rights Commission, and in any subsequent litigation.”
“We dispute the suggestion that the district failed to follow the law,” she said. “The district will prevail in any litigation concerning this matter.”
Twin Valley’s principal, Anna Roth, did not immediately respond to a phone call and email seeking comment, and the chair of the Twin Valley School Board did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
The complaint lays out shocking allegations of racism at the Whitingham school.
According to the complaint, the student, referred to as “C.B.,” began to endure racism and harassment not long after she enrolled at Twin Valley in the fall of 2020. The 10th-grader was the only Black student at the school.
In December of that year, one student called C.B. the N-word in front of a teacher and a full classroom, the complaint alleges.
Two months later, a group of students at the school, including the original perpetrator, allegedly began to use the Nazi salute whenever they saw C.B. in the halls. An assistant principal “claimed there wasn’t enough evidence for him to take any action,” according to the complaint.
That spring, “various students started threatening C.B., calling her a ‘snitch,’ saying they won’t ever stop calling her the ‘N-word’ and that she should move out of Vermont,” according to the complaint. A video posted to Snapchat allegedly showed students “yelling the ‘n-word’” and saying ‘burn, burn, burn.’”
A series of investigations by school officials went nowhere, according to the complaint. During a meeting with C.B.’s mother about the Nazi salutes, the assistant principal allegedly asked if C.B. “identified as Jewish.” The principal also allegedly downplayed the incidents, telling C.B.’s mother that the salutes were “just something the kids did here.”
Attorneys for C.B. allege that the only significant action taken by the school was to create a “group counseling circle” with the perpetrators.
“But this turned into another avenue for students to target C.B., with students laughing the entire time and failing to take it seriously,” the complaint reads.
Komons-Montroll defended the district’s actions and disputed the allegations in the complaint.
“In this case, when the administration was made aware of allegations of racial harassment, we notified families, investigated and, where substantiated, took appropriate disciplinary action,” she said. “The disciplinary actions taken by us were effective. No student repeated the race-based misconduct.”
Komons-Montroll did not respond to an emailed question about the specifics of that disciplinary action.
According to the complaint, C.B. began to suffer from anxiety and depression and her grades suffered.
With the help of the Windham County NAACP and just weeks left in the school year, C.B. finally transferred to Brattleboro Union High School, according to the complaint. She now attends school in Arizona.
“The racism this student experienced is unfortunately a daily reality for students across the state, and one that is still not being talked about or addressed the way it needs to be,” Steffen Gillom, president of the Windham County branch of the NAACP, said in the press release.
The allegations in the complaint are the latest public allegations of racism in Vermont’s largely white public schools.
This fall, a series of school sporting events were marred by allegations of racist abuse; in response, school officials issued new procedures for reporting and investigating such incidents at games.
“We have plenty of racism and sexism and stuff like that happen every single day,” Jay Nichols, executive director of the Vermont Principals’ Association, said in October.
The ACLU is asking the Human Rights Commission, which enforces Vermont’s anti-discrimination laws, to declare that Twin Valley violated the state’s Public Accommodations Act.
The complaint is also seeking “just compensation and other relief as appropriate,” as well as legal fees, for C.B.
Correction: Due to an error in the ACLU’s complaint, an earlier version of this story misattributed information to the principal that C.B.’s mother actually attributed to another parent.
