Yesterday, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) sent a follow-up letter to Louisiana’s St. Mary Parish School District (“the District”) over concerns regarding the recent racial harassment of Black students. The letter asks that the District take steps to support its Black students, including offering support services to affected students, disciplining the students behind the harassment, and updating the District’s disciplinary policies, student code of conduct, and other relevant materials to reflect that racist language and other forms of racial harassment may result in student discipline.
The letter comes after a slew of horrific, racist comments made on Snapchat by several Berwick High School students in response to the killing of George Floyd. In December 2019, LDF sent a similar letter to the District following a racist homecoming poster at the same school. The District’s response to the students’ actions was insufficient, did not explicitly address racism, and did not punish the culpable students.
LDF represents thousands of Black schoolchildren and their parents in school desegregation cases across Louisiana, including Black schoolchildren and their parents in St. Mary Parish. For decades, such families have taken the lead in advancing solutions that will improve conditions for all.
Read the letter to the St. Mary Parish School District here.
###
Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF.
