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Black Teen Sues Wisconsin School District Alleging Her Complaints of Harassment, Sexual Assault and Bullying Were Being Ignored

A Black teen is suing her school district in Baraboo, Wisconsin claiming her complaints of racist harassment, sexual assault and bullying were ignored. The lawsuit filed court in the state capital of Madison last week accuses the Baraboo School District of showing “deliberate indifference” to the alleged abuse according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The lawsuit explained several incidents in the last few years, including touching from a male classmate, use of the N-word and students wearing Confederate flag.

“Officials at the district never took any meaningful action in response to the reports of racial discrimination,” the complaint says, detailing the school district of violating laws meant to protect students from discrimination and harassment. “In fact, most of the time, there was no reaction at all.”

Dasia Banks says said she began getting bullied in the district during the 1st grade, and it got to the point where she felt there was no use in speaking up.

“I want to be the one controlling my story,” the former Baraboo High School student told The Daily Beast. The claims come just over a year after several students at the small-town high school were seen giving the Nazi salute in a photo. According to the district leaders, the incident wasn’t “reflective of the educational values [and] beliefs of the School District of Baraboo.” The teen’s complaint argues otherwise, painting the school as a pit of racism, bullying, and assault.

In the lawsuit, Banks says she was sexually assaulted on several occasions by a student at Baraboo High School who district officials were allegedly aware he assaulted other female students. The allegations of abuse that occurred during the 2017-18 school year included inappropriate touching, groping and exposure, according to the lawsuit. During the same time frame, the teen says she was physically assaulted by another boy in the school hallway. According to the suit, the student would only get a day of in-school suspension rather than the required punishment for bullying which is one to three days of out of school suspension.

Banks who was a sophomore at the time said she remembered hearing a classmate ask a friend, “Is it a hate crime if I slap a Black girl?” In another instance, Banks alleges someone slipped an anonymous letter in her school locker calling her a “n—-r” and a “slut.” Banks would transfer from Baraboo High to another school the following year.

“Every time an issue occurred, I would go and tell a principal,” Banks told Channel 3000. “I would tell them what happened and they told me that they would handle it. But it continued to happen so I felt as though they weren’t doing anything.”

The teen’s mother, Megan Ray, claims the harassment has been going on for years.

“I watched her go from this amazing, compassionate young lady, and she just kind of turned hard,” Ray said. “Her heart has been hardened. She doesn’t believe in anybody anymore. Now, she has got her voice back. And she’s ready to use it for good.”

Ray a former Baraboo School District employee said she was also subjected to racial abuse including being called the N-word by students. According to Ray’s LinkedIn profile, she education assistant and an assistant coach for the varsity girls’ basketball team at Baraboo HS before resigning in 2018. The suit seeks an unspecified amount of monetary compensation from the district for “all economic and emotional losses” the family suffered through over the years.

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