Norwin School District didn't address "racially hostile environment," U.S. Department of Education says
NORTH HUNTINGDON, Pa. (KDKA) — The U.S. Department of Education says Norwin School District didn't do enough to address its "racially hostile environment," which culminated with two students wearing Confederate flags to school and appearing in a social media post referencing the Ku Klux Klan.
Over the course of 10 months in 2021, the Department of Education says students in the majority white district repeatedly engaged in "racially harassing conduct," using slurs and other racially offensive material in group chats and on social media.
The district was made aware of "severe and pervasive incidents of racial harassment," but the department says the district failed to evaluate whether the incidents created a racially hostile environment, failed to even recognize some incidents as race-based harassment and "generally failed" to take reasonable action.
Officials say the harassment included a student posting a video with racially offensive material on social media. Even though a Black student pointed out to the principal and other staff, writing, "Things like this affect me often," the Department of Education says the district didn't do anything to redress the effects of the video.
The department says another exchange on social media and in a group chat promoted violence against Black people. The district referred the incident to local police but "did not otherwise respond – at all," including considering whether the posts made the district a racially hostile environment, the department says.
Norwin students wear Confederate flags to school
Officials say the harassment escalated, and in October 2021, two students, who had been part of prior incidents, wore Confederate flags to school for a "'Merica Monday" themed day during homecoming week. The district also allegedly learned about a photo of the students on social media that was captioned "kool kids klub," a reference to the KKK.
The Department of Education says none of the district administrators interviewed by the Office of Civil Rights thought wearing a Confederate flag to school was racial harassment, "despite the clear evidence of a severe and pervasive racially hostile environment presented to the district in the form of voluminous student, former student, parent, teacher and community emails."
The district has now entered into a resolution agreement to ensure compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, meaning it has to take multiple steps to ensure nondiscrimination, including reviewing all incidents from the 2021-2022 school year, providing Title VI training for employees and auditing all complaints of racial harassment from 2021 to the present.