PEORIA, AZ — A resolution has been announced by the U.S. Department of Education after a complaint of racial harassment against the Peoria Unified School District.
The department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) determined Peoria Unified failed to address harassment allegations toward students on the basis of race, color, and national origin. The harassment is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Education.
On Friday, a resolution agreement was announced after OCR found multiple accounts of harassment against students within the district.
According to the release, peer harassment included the following:
-Race-based slurs, such as targeting the "N-word" and "ching chong" at students.
-Mocking police killings of Black people.
-Pulling eyes back to mock Asian students.
-Mimicking "Heil Hitler" salutes.
-Drawing Swastikas on photographs of students' faces on notebooks and in a bathroom.
-Saying Black people "do not deserve to live" and "should die."
-Saying a student's skin looked like "burnt" food.
-Saying that a student should "go back to [their] country" and "eat dog."
Other findings included harassment by employees which involved repeated touching of and comments about a Black student's hair.
The OCR stated that the persistent and severe harassment as well as Peoria Unified's ineffective response caused significant and enduring academic, social, and emotional harm to the student who was the subject of the OCR complaint.
During the investigation, officials found that a schoolwide hostile environment existed and at least a dozen other students of color were likewise harassed based on race, color, or national origin by numerous peers.
The OCR believes administrators and teachers at the school were aware of the harassment and the district responded ineffectively, or not at all, allowing the harassment to continue.
Furthermore, the district did not offer any support to students who were harassed.
The district allowed students of color to be subjected to a hostile environment based on race, color, or national origin which interfered, or could have reasonably interfered with, their ability to participate in or benefit from the school's program, as a result of Peoria Unified's failures, the OCR stated.
The resolution agreement, announced Friday, commits the district to take steps to ensure nondiscrimination based on race, color, and national origin in its educational programs and activities.
Peoria Unified School District released the following statement Friday:
"Our district has been cooperating with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights regarding a past complaint at Vistancia Elementary School. We are moving forward with the voluntary resolution agreement as we are confident in our new leadership to build a positive and inclusive environment for students and staff at Vistancia. Peoria Unified remains unwavering in our commitment to provide equal educational opportunities to all students and an environment that is free from harassment of any kind."
Peoria Unified's commitments in the voluntary resolution agreement include:
-Providing support and remedies, where appropriate, to students who were subjected to peer harassment based on race, color, or national origin at the school.
-Conducting a climate assessment that examines the prevalence of harassment at the school, the hostile environment created by the widespread harassment, the school's and district's handling of reports of harassment, and measures for reducing harassment at the school and for improving the district's response to reports of harassment.
-Issuing an anti-harassment statement and issuing a notice to parents about identifying and reporting harassment and about how the district is expected to respond.
-Reviewing, revising, and disseminating policies, forms, and record-keeping procedures related to harassment based on race, color, and national origin.
-Training staff about legal requirements under Title VI, reporting and responding to harassment, prohibited retaliation, cultural competency, and implicit bias. And,
-Providing developmentally appropriate educational programs about how to recognize and report racial harassment for school students.
