Chicago students sue after being expelled for racist text messages

Two students at Marist High School claim that they are being “used as scapegoats” after they were expelled for being part of a racist group text message last month, and their fathers have filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court.

The teenagers, according to their lawsuit, were part of a group of 32 girls in a conversation that started after a religious retreat in September. They claim that they were told that anything they said at the retreat “would be strictly confidential.”

The group text conversation generated controversy when one of the participants shared a tweet claiming that people protesting a black man gunned down by an off-duty Chicago police officer would bring along gang members to retaliate by killing white residents.

— Homicides in Chicago top 700 with month left to go in 2016 —

While the students acknowledged making comments that “others believed to be racially insensitive,” the claimed that parts of the conversation that were made public were “altered,” with one participant seeming to say, “I F– HATE N–.”

The suit goes on to claim that five people in the conversation were expelled or otherwise barred from school “without any formal disciplinary process.” They claim that they were singled out even though others used “similar language.”

What’s more, the girls claim that they were “labeled as racists and used as scapegoats by Marist to respond to an array of social media criticisms and media pressure,” and that the school allowed their full names to be used, jeopardizing their privacy as well as their shot at college admission. They are seeking $1 million for privacy invasion as well as $65,000 each for tuition and school costs.