Sacramento region school district settles alleged case of anti-Black harassment
The Yuba City Unified School District settled with the state after a Black student alleged “severe” racial harassment at two of its elementary schools. After a yearlong investigation, the district agreed to pay the family a settlement and to take actions to address and prevent racism in its schools.
A Black student experienced repeated threats, acts of violence and anti-Black comments while enrolled at two different elementary schools in Yuba City Unified, the student’s family alleges in a 2024 complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department. The names of the two elementary schools were not publicly released.
The alleged misconduct came from both students and teachers spanning multiple school years. The student who filed the complaint said that fellow students used racial slurs while “repeatedly kicking, slapping or taunting” them and that a teacher pulled at their hair while making disparaging comments.
The family said they reported these incidents to school officials multiple times, but the district did not put a stop to the behavior or take action to make either school safe for Black students.
Yuba City Unified Superintendent Doreen Osumi did not respond to a request for comment by email or phone.
How Yuba City schools will address racist harassment
After reaching a settlement with the California Civil Rights Department, Yuba City Unified is required to hire a trainer to oversee the district’s outreach and education efforts to maintain a safe, nondiscriminatory environment. This person will oversee a culture and climate survey issued to staff and families at the two elementary schools, which will inform the content of mandatory training sessions provided to educators and administrators at both sites on how to address potential violations of the district’s discrimination and harassment policies.
Both schools are required to provide age-appropriate lessons for students from kindergarten through fifth grade that focus on school as an “inclusive, safe and non-discriminatory place of belonging”, designed to offer students an opportunity to engage in conversation about inclusion in their school community, increase awareness of what constitutes harassment and discrimination and to explain how to report such incidents to a trusted adult.
The district is also required to host at least two family education nights for parents at both schools during which the district will share its plan to foster a safe environment for all students and provide guidance to parents on how to report concerns.
In addition to these requirements the district will pay $30,000 in compensation to the family that filed the complaint, although Yuba City Unified did not admit to any wrongdoing.
The decision represents a rare Civil Rights Department settlement based on the Ralph Act, a 1976 California law which protects people from violence and threats of violence based on protected characteristics.
“Every single student has the right to feel safe at school,” said Civil Rights Department Director Kevin Kish. “Teachers, administrators, and other school staff are responsible for helping make that happen. There is no place in our schools for anti-Black harassment or discrimination.”
The Civil Rights Department encourages those who have experienced hate violence to request assistance via its complaint process. The department also provides general information and fact sheets online about civil rights protections, including on the Ralph Act.
This is not the district’s first brush with issues of racism — The Sacramento Bee reported in 2022 that one of the district’s varsity football teams would forfeit the rest of its season after the discovery of a video in which several players acted out a mock slave auction, shouting dollar amounts as three Black students were lined up in front of them. The event made headlines across the country.
The Black football players in the viral video later apologized at a Greater Sacramento NAACP press conference, saying that they did not want to participate in the offensive video but felt pressured by fellow River Valley High School teammates to partake.
Earlier in 2022, a school counselor in the district was arrested on charges that included hate speech and threats toward an African American victim.
The district also has two open cases pending with the federal Office of Civil Rights, one from 2022 and one from 2024, investigating allegations of racial harassment.
