Complaint prompts school probe

The U.S. Department of Education has opened a second investigation into alleged racial discrimination within Spokane Public Schools.

The complaint was filed by a mother whose four children attend Bemiss Elementary School in north Spokane. Among other things, she alleged that a teacher took no action when her first-grader complained that another student had made racist comments.

This is the third investigation opened this year in Eastern Washington by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, or OCR. It’s the second opened in Spokane Public Schools since March. Another investigation was opened with the Davenport School District in April.

Bemiss Principal Kevin Peterson responded to a reporter’s questions with an e-mail.

“My staff and I work extremely hard to communicate with parents and problem-solve situations together. I am disappointed that this has gone this far since we always do our best to resolve issues that come to our attention,” Peterson wrote.

Tia Griffin, a Gonzaga University student studying organizational leadership, filed the complaint after six meetings with Peterson and numerous other conversations with district officials. She pursued the complaint with the federal agency after learning about another Spokane woman whose allegations opened the first district investigation earlier this year.

Griffin received a letter dated May 6 from the OCR saying that four of her allegations would be investigated. She had alleged 14 separate incidents in her letter. Most were dismissed because of a lack of evidence, according to the letter.

Her accepted complaints include an accusation that her first-grade daughter complained to a teacher that a boy repeatedly said to her, “I wish Martin Luther King was dead, and I wish all black people were dead.”

Griffin said the teacher took no action to stop the other student and questioned her daughter about the importance of the incident.

The mother also said that after she raised concerns with school staff regarding her children being treated differently from other children based on race, the principal restricted Griffin’s access to teachers, which she said was done because of racial differences.

“There are times when teachers say they are uncomfortable with a parent,” said Nancy Stowell, associate superintendent of teaching and learning services for Spokane Public Schools. “It doesn’t happen on a regular basis. I don’t know if it happened here. I don’t have a lot of details about this parent.”

The OCR will also investigate whether a Bemiss teacher told a student, who is white, to stay away from Griffin’s 11-year-old son. Griffin has alleged the teacher told the boy that her son was “bad,” and the mother said the incident was racially motivated. The boy, a friend of her son’s, confirmed the incident, Griffin said.

“My son said, ‘Mommy, what’s wrong with me? That teacher said I’m no good,’ ” Griffin said.

Also, the federal office will look into a playground dispute involving three girls. Two black girls – one of them Griffin’s 10-year-old daughter – were sent to the office over the dispute, but a white girl was not questioned, Griffin said in her complaint.

In February, Griffin spoke before the Spokane Public Schools Board of Directors to explain her efforts to get Bemiss teachers and administrators to correct how her children were treated. She told the board that one of her children has a severe stutter, is a special-education student and needs certain considerations from teachers that he was not receiving.

Griffin said that after speaking at the board meeting, she never heard from school officials or board members regarding her complaints. Soon after that, she filed her complaint.

Stowell said the concerns raised in the complaint will be taken seriously. “We certainly will look into them and comply with the requests we have from OCR to provide them with the information they need,” Stowell said. “Our focus is on resolving whatever issues families have. We go into this in a problem-solving mode would be the fairest thing to say.”

According to figures from the Office of Civil Rights, 174 of 445 complaints made from Oct. 1, 2002, to April 7 of this year in the state of Washington became full-fledged investigations. During that period, 14 complaints were made by Eastern Washington residents. Five have been closed without an investigation, eight are being evaluated to determine if a probe is warranted and two remain under investigation.

One investigation began in March when Kiondra Bullock claimed that her daughter, who is black, was called racial slurs daily by a special-education student last fall at Sacajawea Middle School. The mother said school officials mishandled the incident. In the second open investigation, Kitara McClure, a Spokane Community College student, said that her 10-year-old son was called racial slurs by other students at Davenport Elementary School. The mother said Davenport School District officials did not adequately address the matter. She said they offered her son a chance to give cultural presentations to other classes, which she declined.