A lawsuit was filed against Iron County School District for allegedly failing to protect a high school student against racial discrimination and bullying. The lawsuit was filed by the parents of the student on Jan. 13 and was moved to federal court the next day.
The bullying allegedly started when the student, who is only named as David and Sameeta Cowley’s daughter, was a freshman cheerleader at Cedar High School. At the end of the season, before the tryouts, the student sent a message to another cheerleader wishing her good luck, saying, “you are literally so good you are totally gonna make the team.”
According to the screenshots in the 28 page lawsuit, the cheerleader proceeded to tell the student she was “too ugly to be a cheerleader,” asked if her parents “even meant to have her” and called her a racial slur.
The student went to the school counselor to show the screenshots, but did not disclose she was the one who received the messages because she believed it would affect her chances of making the cheer team. She sent the screenshots to the counselor, who told the student she could delete the messages from her phone after she asked.
The school later reached out to the student’s parents to ask if their daughter was the one who received the messages. The parents of the cheerleader who allegedly sent the messages were also notified, but they claimed that the student fabricated the messages.
The lawsuit states that the parents repeatedly asked the school district to take action, but said that the school kept failing to protect their daughter. The parents ended up turning to the Cedar City Police Department for help, but were told that only the school administration and the cheer coach would be able to help.
The student has since been withdrawn from in-person classes, and the lawsuit states, “[the] daughter has been robbed of the ability to participate in these activities because of [the school district’s] inaction to prevent incidents of bullying, racial discrimination, and harassment.”
Author: Lainey Porter
Photo: Paul Bardazzi
Editor: Hannah Clove
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