A Tennessee school district where federal investigators said students subjected a Black classmate to repeated harassment, including calling him racist slurs, hitting him and holding a mock “slave auction” to sell him to White peers, will implement several changes under a settlement agreement announced Monday.
A 2023 Justice Department investigation found that administrators at Hawkins County School District in northeast Tennessee let a “racially hostile climate” take root in two schools by being slow to investigate reports of harassment and, in some instances, not disciplining perpetrators and discouraging students from reporting further abuse. Students passed around a drawing of a Ku Klux Klansmen, made whipping noises at a Black student and added him to a group chat filled with racist slurs, the department alleges.
Hawkins County School District, which denies the allegations, agreed to overhaul its anti-harassment procedures by hiring a compliance officer, creating an electronic portal to track complaints and reviewing anti-harassment efforts.
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