The mother of an Amite County student said her openly gay daughter has been the victim of constant harassment and produced a long list of incidents that led officials from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to launch an investigation.
Department of Education officials came to Amite County High School last week to look into the allegations.
The mother said some of the harassment “has come from administrators at the school,” as well as students and other staff.
Superintendent of Education Scotty Whittington, however, said the claims are “a definite reach” and most are difficult, if not impossible, to verify.
The Enterprise-Journal is not identifying the student or her parents because the child has been the target of alleged harassment.
In a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education on Feb. 17, the mother claimed a basketball player flipped her daughter out of a chair and used a slur about her sexual orientation in the process. She said the boy was reportedly disciplined by assistant principal Marcus Flippin, who also is a basketball coach, “so he didn’t do anything.”
McDowell called the incident a fabrication.
“It just wasn’t true,” he said, adding that the teacher in the classroom “would have notified me right away.”
A football player reportedly threatened her by telling her to keep his name out of her “gay” mouth “or I will make you keep it out,” the mother said. She said neither student was disciplined and at least one was not in school when federal officials came to investigate the claims.
“It has something to do with them not liking her because of who she is,” the mother said.
Whittington said school officials asked her for the names of the players so they could discipline them, but the student refused to identify them.
“When we investigate we can’t find any proof that they did say it, and none of them would admit it if they did,” Whittington said.
The 10th-grader’s mother claimed her daughter has been discriminated against because of both her sexual orientation and her gender.
She said her daughter was held back from practicing with other drummers outside of the band hall because she was the only girl.
In another incident, the mother said the school’s parent center coordinator told other students to not talk to the girl, saying “she’s not the right kind.” She said male students have told her to stay away from their girlfriends.
The mother said students have called her daughter a number of insults, mentioning one instance in which a student said gay girls “are weirdos acting like boys.”
Whittington said this is the first time he’s heard of complaints of this nature in his 18 years with the district.
“Since I’ve been in the district she is the only one who has complained about sexual harassment of any type and we have other gay and lesbian students,” he said.
Flippin said students and staff are accepting of students regardless of their sexual orientation. He and McDowell dismissed the mother’s claims.
“I’m comfortable in saying there’s nothing going on with her daughter,” Flippin said. “Any of this stuff she’s trying taking place is just actually a way of her trying to paid.”
“This is all about her personal crusade to try to get a lawsuit,” McDowell said.
The student’s mother called McDowell and Flippin active participants in the discrimination.
She said she went to talk to school administrators about another write-up her daughter received for supposedly taking too long in the bathroom after she became ill, McDowell told her that her daughter was lying to them, and Flippin added that she was trying to get the family to believe her, with both administrators allegedly using a profane term in the process.
The bathroom incident resulted in three days of in-school suspension, with her daughter being sent to a room with two male instructors. The complaint says after she asked to be transferred to another room with a female instructor, McDowell reportedly said, “Since you affiliate yourself with 90 percent of the male gender anyway, why would you be uncomfortable with two men?”
McDowell denied saying that during the encounter. He said there are two in-school suspension classrooms at the school for grades 7 through 12. Two male teachers staff the high school classroom, while a female teacher staffs the junior high.
The girl’s parents wrote in a Feb. 22 letter to the school board that they went to speak to McDowell on Feb. 16. The mother claimed McDowell tried to fight with her husband.
“He made advances toward my husband after my husband asked him to stop yelling and screaming at me while I was at school or either on the phone. Principal McDowell then pulled off his jacket, threw it up on the office counter and went to go into my husband’s face, but was restrained by Assistant Principal Flippin,” she wrote in her complaint to federal education officials.
McDowell didn’t deny taking off his jacket and assuming what he called a defensive stance, but he painted the father as the aggressor. Flippin agreed, saying the father was shouting obscenities during the encounter.
“He was asked to come back to my office and have a civil conversation and he wouldn’t do that,” McDowell said. “He approached me in a manner where he was going to inflict harm on me, so I did react to it — a natural reaction.”
In February, the county school board voted to release McDowell, Flippin and Assistant Superintendent of Education Robert McDaniel, citing the school’s F rating, but trustees reversed that decision in March.
The mother said her allegations are supported by the fact that one district employee has been convicted of assaulting her daughter.
In December, bus driver Derek Hudson was convicted of simple assault in Amite County Justice Court for shoving the student against a wall on school property in November. Despite the verdict, the mother said district officials exercised no further discipline against the driver.
“They didn’t do nothing,” she said. “That man is still driving a bus with 60 kids.”
Whittington said the district responded to the situation by reassigning the bus driver. He disputed the student’s account of the incident, however. He said the encounter happened after a football game. The band director wanted to address students, but the girl wanted to leave. Whittington said the bus driver blocked her access to the doorway but she left anyway.
“We had to pay a fine, which was ridiculous,” Whittington said.
Court records show Hudson was fined $524 during a Nov. 7, 2016, hearing.
Whittington said the bus driver is still working for the district because “we have too much trouble finding qualified bus drivers and keeping them.”
The student’s mother said she turned to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after approaching the school board in February and getting no relief.
She then wrote a letter to the school board and posted it on social media after she said she received no forum before the board.
Whittington said he’s optimistic federal investigators will find no fault with the district, which he said is being proactive by updating its handbook and making non-discriminatory policies more visible.
He said he’s not dismissing the possibility that the student was the target of some harassment, but he thinks the case has been blown out of proportion.
“I don’t doubt the students have said something to the girl. Kids can be mean to each other,” he said.
McDowell and Flippin said the student is generally a good student who gets along well with others and has had only minor disciplinary issues.
But they have a lesser opinion of her mother.
“She is constantly here and constantly looking for something,” McDowell said. “I wish her well in her endeavors ... but personally I’m done with this issue.”
The student’s mother said her daughter, who has been in contact with the American Civil Liberties Union throughout the ordeal, will not back down from standing up for herself and continues to attend Amite County High School.
“I am so proud of her,” she said.
