Three parents are now claiming racist acts, bullying, and abuse happened to their children while attending Mandarin Middle School.
The parents claim their children are afraid to go to school at Mandarin Middle after their problems were ignored.
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“If I didn’t do anything about it, y’all would’ve just swept it under the rug,” parent Aylise Beechem said.
Beechem said there is a lot wrong with this situation.
“I feel like I trust you with my child, not that my child should be scared to go to school,” Beechem said.
Beechem is one of the three parents who are now suing Duval County Public Schools.
Action News Jax told you three weeks ago that Beechem claimed a teacher and students called her son the N-word in March, but nothing was done about it.
“If he comes to you, you should be able to hear him out. Make sure that what he is saying is true and investigate it,” Beechem said.
Kristen Woodall, whose daughter is bi-racial, claims her daughter’s teacher said that whites are superior to blacks.
“When this incident happened, I was never notified, not once,” Woodall said.
Woodall said ignoring the students’ claims sends a message that they don’t matter.
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“To me, it’s not the answer, it’s not what we need to do and we need to show these children that they are important,” Woodall said.
According to Jasmine Rand, the attorney for the parents, Duval County Public Schools has taken the wrong course of action in this situation.
“When Ms. Woodall approached the school district about the racial discrimination that her daughter was experiencing, she was offered for her daughter to switch classrooms,” Rand said. “The administration should not be removing children from the classroom when there is a racist teacher, it should be removing that racist teacher from the school.”
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Now they are demanding the teacher, principal, and the dean of the school are all fired for not acknowledging these incidents.
Action News Jax reached out to DCPS for comment and received the following:
“Our office of professional standards continues to investigate these allegations. The investigation is in process and has not concluded. While the presumption of innocence applies, if the allegations are confirmed and supported through the investigation, appropriate action is taken in accordance with district progressive discipline policies and the collective bargaining agreement.”
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