LUBBOCK, Texas – The Slaton Independent School District announced the Board of Trustees passed a resolution “regarding the use of racial slurs, harassment, hate speech, or derogatory language,” just hours after the Lubbock-Cooper Independent School District Board of Trustees passed a similar resolution.
The move comes after multiple claims of civil rights violations at Lubbock-area schools made national headlines.
EverythingLubbock.com first reported claims of racism within the schools in April of 2022 after the discovery of a derogatory Instagram page aimed towards black students at Lubbock-Cooper ISD.
In December of 2022, students and families from the Lubbock-Cooper ISD and Slaton ISD filed civil right complaints against the school districts alongside the Lubbock NAACP and the Intercultural Development Research Association.
The complaint against Slaton ISD said in part, “…Black students at Slaton High School are daily subjected to their non-Black peers using the ‘N word’ and other racial slurs, bullying, and harassment.” One case mentioned in the complaint involved a black student, who was out of breath while working out during football practice and was then “taunted by other students jeering, ‘He can’t breathe like George Floyd.’”
The resolution from Slaton ISD stated that in May of 2022, an all-student assembly was held in order to highlight student expectation for preventing use of racial slurs and other forms of harassment stating, “Consequences increase from an immediate office referral to three days in ISS. Thereafter, a student used a racial slur and was appropriately disciplined.”
The resolution also stated that, “the Board of Trustees publicly condemns any acts of students or staff who might use racial slurs or harass or bully other students.”
See the full resolution below.
