Hersrud Updates Facts On Racist Incident On Bus

A day after speaking publicly about incidents of racism in Spokane, Stacy Hersrud corrected herself.

Hersrud, the former director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, told 18 people at Eastern Washington University Wednesday that two children were beaten and verbally tormented on a school bus.

She told the group that nothing was ever done when the school was contacted.

“That’s not true,”’ Vince Lemus, the city’s human rights specialist, said Thursday. “I was not comfortable with the fact that she was telling people nothing was done.”

Lemus said the child guilty of verbally assaulting the children was given a three-day suspension. Lemus learned about the incident when Hersrud referred an angry mother to the human rights office. Lemus said he sent the mother papers to file a human rights violation. The papers were never returned, Lemus said.

The mother was concerned the suspension was not enough to protect her child, Lemus said.

On Thursday, Hersrud said she was not aware of the school district’s suspension when she shared the story at a public speech. When Lemus informed her of the inaccuracy, she called The Spokesman-Review to update the story.

Hersrud served as the director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for 13 months. She resigned in December, but was asked to leave two weeks earlier than she had planned when the center board read her resignation letter. Neither the board nor Hersrud has revealed the contents of her letter.