Woman files civil rights complaint against Port schools

Nov. 4—NEWBURYPORT — A Black teenage girl, now 14, has been harassed and bullied on several occasions in elementary and middle school over the past four years, according to her mother, who said she filed another civil rights complaint last month on behalf of her daughter — this time with the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education.

The girl's mother, Keisha Jackson, filed a complaint against Bresnahan Elementary School in 2017 with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.

The most recent incident, documented in a Nock Middle School report and confirmed by Newburyport police, resulted in a 14-year-old boy being summonsed to juvenile court to face a charge of identity fraud for allegedly setting up a SnapChat account to harass the girl. Both teens attend Nock.

"This is not the first incident of racial harassment toward my daughter," Jackson said. She said the school district has not dealt with racism properly, and that prompted her to bring the issue into the public eye.

With little confidence the school district will be able to fix what she believes are systemic issues that have resulted in years of racially motivated bullying, Jackson is looking to leave Newburyport and transfer her daughter to another school.

"Incidents of racial harassment and bullying toward my daughter have happened over the years while she has been in three different schools under the Newburyport School District and it has been emotionally painful, unjust and stressful for my daughter, myself and my family," Jackson said.

According to the school report on Sept. 29, Jackson told Nicholas Markos, Nock's interim principal, about a bullying incident that took place outside of school involving her daughter and the 14-year-old boy. The report, which included screenshots of disparaging social media remarks, alleged the boy created a fake Snapchat account under the name "Uma," a disparaging nickname allied with Jackson's daughter. The boy, according to the report, pretended to be Jackson's daughter and contacted other students on SnapChat.

Within days, Markos identified the youth who allegedly created the fake account. On Oct. 4, Markos sat down with the boy who, according to the school report, admitted to setting up the fake account and using a nickname that students used to call (Jackson's daughter) while they were attending Molin School.

According to the report, Markos spoke to the boy's mother, who agreed to have him go through a "restorative justice process" with a trained counselor and agreed that Jackson's daughter could be part of the process. As stated in the report, Markos suggested that Jackson's daughter could write an impact statement if she did not want to be part of the process directly.

Newburyport police subsequently filed a complaint against the boy, leading to the charge of identity fraud. When asked if the boy could be charged with a hate crime at some point, Newburyport Marshal Mark Murray said he did not anticipate any further legal action against the student.

This week, Jackson said she met with Nock Middle School officials again Friday and was told they are continuing to look into the SnapChat incident.

"There's more to investigate," Jackson said.

On Monday, Jackson was informed by the state Department of Education that until Nock officials complete their investigation, the state would hold off on making a decision whether to open its own investigation, Jackson said.

This is not the first time Jackson's daughter has encountered racism. In 2016, when the girl attended Bresnahan Elementary School, a student threatened to "beat up my daughter because she was Black and told this to another student," Jackson said.

She said her daughter and the other student reported the threat to the recess monitor and a teacher, but nothing came of it.

As a result, Jackson filed a civil rights complaint with the school district and the Attorney General's Office. On Feb. 2, 2017, Director of Student Services Christina Gentile told Jackson that an internal investigation would begin in accordance with state and federal laws, as well as district policy.

Gentile's report, issued about 20 days later, found no evidence that any district employee engaged in race-based discrimination, harassment or retaliation, but called out school personnel for failing to follow district protocol.

Gentile wrote, "However I did determine that Newburyport public school staff did not follow the district's reporting procedures. The policy provides that 'any person who believes that a student ... has engaged in conduct prohibited by this policy ... is encouraged to report the alleged prohibited conduct as soon as possible to the appropriate individual listed in this policy.'

"The policy notes that oral reports are considered complaints. Specifically, when the incident in November of 2016 occurred with the student from another classroom, based on interviews, it is unclear who reported the incident to school administrators, or when the report was made," Gentile wrote.

Gentile found that the district staff's failure to follow reporting procedures contributed to miscommunication between the school administration and the family concerning the incident and the district's response. She also determined that staff did not conduct a "timely investigation of the reported complaints."

Gentile recommended the district hire a consultant to train administrators about diversity; conduct a climate survey at Bresnahan Elementary; and conduct training on reporting and investigating harassment and discrimination reports.

It is not known whether the district followed through with the recommendations. At the time of the incident, the district was led by School Superintendent Susan Viccaro.

In addition, Jackson said that in May 2019, a student called her daughter a "rat" for reporting bullying behavior against her to a teacher. The same student also threatened to "slit her throat" if she "made a big thing out of it," according to a Molin Upper Elementary School report dated May 13, 2019, and obtained by The Daily News.

Jackson also produced a screenshot of a group text in April in which two people call her daughter a racial epithet. She sent the screenshot to Markos, which prompted him to meet with Jackson and her daughter.

When asked about Jackson's complaints, school Superintendent Sean Gallagher declined to comment, citing student confidentiality.

An official at the AG's Office said it could not comment on Jackson's 2017 complaint, but said that office takes allegations of race-based bullying and/or harassment at schools seriously.

"Our role is often to share resources with schools to make sure they are addressing the allegations appropriately and effectively," the official said.

Likewise, an official at the state Department of Education declined to comment, saying that as policy, the Office for Civil Rights does not acknowledge complaints until they have been evaluated and accepted for investigation.

Jackson said her daughter has not been the same since the racial bullying began.

"It's caused her to feel like she is different, it's caused her some anxiety and she feels bad about herself," Jackson said. "No child should ever have to go through this, regardless of skin color."

Dave Rogers is a reporter with the Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008.

Dave Rogers is a reporter with the Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008.