A South Florida high school freshman said she felt compelled to leave her school after she said she was verbally attacked by a classmate who used a racial slur against her while her teacher stood by and did nothing.
Jasmine is a 14-year-old student who, until recently, attended Miami Senior High School. She alleges another student called her the n-word during their virtual class.
Besides verbally attacking Jasmine, her attorney said a screenshot showed the Zoom chat where the word was used 28 consecutive times to bully her via text as well.
Jasmine said the teacher did nothing to stop it. And the freshman’s mother, Nicole Crooks, said the principal’s initial response was disturbing.
"To be told by the principal that he would need to find out the context in which the n-word was used in order to start looking into it, signifies an even bigger and more widespread issue than I ever even could have imagined," said the mother.
Crooks said she feels hurt, disrespected and frustrated that this happened and that her daughter doesn’t feel safe going back to a school that failed to protect her after being made aware of the situation.
"There is no context. There is no context in which it’s acceptable for anybody to call somebody else that," said Crooks.
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Crooks said she wants Miami-Dade County Public School administrators to do something about it, not just for the good of her daughter, but for the good of the child who inflicted the pain.
"To think about the anger and the hurt and the pain that that child is going through, that would make them do something like that. And to have that classroom full of students…they took on that trauma too. They experienced that, and nobody’s addressing any of it,” said Crooks.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools responded to the accusations in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
“Miami-Dade County Public Schools is obviously disheartened to learn about this incident as we strongly believe that every child should feel a sense of belonging and acceptance," the district's statement read. "As such, the District continues to foster teaching and learning environments that embrace and celebrate the diversity of our students, workforce, and community. Although we cannot provide further comment due to potential litigation, our commitment to promoting racial equality and social justice has not wavered."
