Lawsuit alleges racist bullying went unchecked

GOING TO TRIAL? – A jury could decide whether Oaks Christian “tolerates” discrimination. Acorn file photo

Shocking acts of bullying and racist harassment at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village are alleged in a lawsuit filed last week by a black student, currently a senior at the upscale private academy. Oaks Christian denied the allegations, saying it responded quickly to the incident reported a year ago and that the school does not tolerate racism or discrimination.

The plaintiff, identified in the lawsuit as John Doe, describes numerous instances of highly offensive and degrading behavior toward black students by non-black classmates, including the use of the N-word, insults based on prejudiced stereotypes, a fake slave auction conducted in the cafeteria and even a threat of lynching.

According to the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Oct. 16, some instances of abuse were witnessed by school staff who were unable to put a stop to it. In one alleged example, students used a smartphone application that emitted a whipping sound to evoke the punishment meted out to slaves. The complaint calls this a form of “racial torment.”

Claiming emotional distress and mental anguish that led him to therapy, the plaintiff is seeking unspecified damages from Oaks Christian. The school is alleged to have been negligent in supervising its staff and to have discriminated against the plaintiff on the basis of his race, in violation of California civil rights law.

“Despite repeated reports of Black students and students of color experiencing racially motivated harassment, discrimination, and bullying, the school’s administration and faculty actively chose to ignore the seriousness of these situations,” the document states.

“By essentially disregarding systemic racism within its walls, Oaks Christian School not only violated its own policies, but also failed to fulfill its duty to provide a safe and inclusive learning environment for its students of color.”

The other side

Oaks Christian tells a different story. According to a statement from the school, on October 27, 2023, a student told a staff member that he had been subjected to “student-to-student racial harassment.” The administration acted immediately, suspending students and launching an investigation, which resulted in the “immediate and permanent removal of three students from the school.”

The statement continues: “Over the past year, the school has monitored frequently to ensure that there were no other concerns or incidents involving the student that brought the issue to the school’s attention,” and nothing further was reported. “In addition, the school met with the students’ parents several times.”

The plaintiff’s attorney, Neema Shojai of the Marcereau Law Group in Orange County, said the students who left Christian Oaks after last year’s incident – identified as the fake slave auction – were not expelled, but were told by the administration that could enroll elsewhere. and thus avoid damaging your academic records.

The school initially proposed handling the situation as “a teachable moment,” Shojai told Acorn, but the plaintiff’s parents pressed for stronger action.

“What the evidence will show, as the depositions are taken and the experts have to testify under oath, as some of these school administrators do, is that any easy actions they took were token actions, and not actual actions that were in compliance. with their requirements and their responsibilities as custodians,” said Shojai.

The complaint also recounts how, following the national protests that followed the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, there was a reckoning over racism and discrimination at Oaks Christian, with many Black alumni recounting painful experiences in the comments section of an online petition that attracted more than 8,000 signatures. As a result, the school was well aware of the problem, the plaintiff’s lawyers say, and promised to do better.

In June of that year, school principal Rob Black issued a written commitment to improve Oak Christian’s policies against harassment, discrimination and bias.

“We wish to promote racial healing on our campus and in our community,” Black said.

But “no meaningful action was taken,” the lawsuit alleges.

According to the complainant, in his second year he was warned privately by the school’s vice principal that a U.S. history class on slavery would be “difficult” and that “pranksters” in the class might make inappropriate comments.

“Instead of taking steps to ensure that (John Doe) was not subjected to racist insults, he advised him to ‘prepare for it,’” the complaint states.

Judgment approaches

With both parties presenting irreconcilable narratives, the case appears to be heading towards trial. It would then be up to a jury to decide between Oaks Christian’s claim to be a biblical community that effectively dealt with an isolated incident of racial harassment by “a handful of students,” or the much more disturbing image of the lawsuit of an institution that “ continues to tolerate and foment a despicable cauldron of racism within its walls.”