Racial Harassment Suit because teacher read from text that had racial slurs

[jancantor]

My only comment is that this content seems a little rough for a 5th grader. Whether or not the lawsuit is valid as a violation of Michigans Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act (I'm leaning towards no), the material seems a bit rough for a 5th grader.

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Warren — The family of a former Warren Consolidated Schools fifth-grader is suing the district, claiming the African-American girl was the victim of racial discrimination when excerpts from a book about slavery containing "outrageous statements" — including the N-word — were read aloud in class.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Macomb County Circuit Court, says the district inflicted emotional distress and racial harassment on the girl by allowing a Margaret Black Elementary School teacher to read sections of the book "From Slave Ship to Freedom Road" by Julius Lester.

The lesson took place in January, and involves passages that include: "Step right up! New shipment of n-----s just in." And, "Nine months after you buy one of these n-----s, you will have a plantation full of n----r babies," according to the lawsuit.

Novi-based attorney Scott E. Combs, who is representing the family, says the incident violates Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which bars employers — and schools — from discriminating on the basis of factors such as religion, color, age, height and weight. The family is seeking damages exceeding $25,000.



From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20101110/SCHOOLS/11100370/Family-suing-Warren-school-district-over-slavery-lesson#ixzz151WcLgnz

[BlueCheese]

1. That's nuts.

Based on a quick search, Julius Lester is an author of 25 books, several of which have won awards. He is a professor at UMass-Amherst in Judaic and Near-Eastern studies (I was expecting American history based on the story). He's also African American himself.

There is a real misunderstanding going on here. It's like the recurring quarrels over Huckleberry Finn and things like that.

[jancantor]

2. A big part of the problem and something I rail about constantly

is how poorly legislators WRITE these type of anti-discrimination laws, that they fail to properly define terms, often write them overbroadly (which makes them constitutionally invalid when challenged) and fail to take possibilities like this into account. Realistically speaking, the race and academic pedigree of the author is largely irrelevant to this case, but it's common sense relevant.

As a practical matter, schools SHOULD provide resources about slavery that show how truly awful it was. However, that is effectively done exactly the way this book by Lester does it. But then by doing so, teachers etc. can run afoul of well intentioned but poorly written laws.

The entire realm of cyberstalking, harassment and bullying laws leave a lot of room for these types of lawsuits, much as "zero tolerance" weapons laws resulted in cases like the one where a kid got in trouble for pointing a finger at somebody, or another for having a tiny military plastic action figure, because the figure had a 'weapon.'

My state's cyberstalking law is just waiting to be overturned. It effectively makes it illegal to insult somebody over the internet. Heck, half of DU violates that law consistently :)

Laws need to be written narrowly, to avoid these types of crap.