Grad says West Jefferson Hills district officials ignored racial harassment
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A 2020 Thomas Jefferson High School graduate who is biracial has filed a federal lawsuit alleging she was the target of repeated racial slurs and other harassment that the West Jefferson Hills School District failed to address.
Destinie Bedard and her parents Frank and Jodi Stosic filed the lawsuit Aug. 11 alleging her civil rights were violated and seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the school district, according to a copy of the filing.
District Superintendent Michel Ghilani issued the following statement this afternoon in response to the Trib’s request for comment:
“At all times, the district has made every effort to provide an environment that is safe and free from discrimination,” he wrote in an email. “The district denies that it has violated its legal obligations with respect to the student involved.”
Bedard said the harassment began in November 2017 when a white male student posted sexually and racially derogatory comments on social media, which she reported to the high school principal and the school’s resource officer, according to the lawsuit.
The same day she reported the incident, she received a text message from an unknown number containing racial slurs, which prompted her mother to file a police report, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit contends that the student who made the remarks was not disciplined and that the police department was never notified about the incident.
Bedard said that the harassment escalated in January 2018 at the high school when she was assaulted by a different student, also a white male.
“The male student physically lifted Ms. Bedard off the ground and slammed her into the floor,” according to the lawsuit.
She said the district officials questioned whether the assault actually took place or if it was “horseplay.”
The student received a one-day suspension from school after Bedard told school officials that other students had witnessed the assault, according to the lawsuit.
Bedard was treated for a concussion, but the symptoms worsened and caused her to miss midterm exams and school activities, according to the lawsuit.
After the assault, Bedard began receiving text messages from white students bullying her and blaming her for the incident, according to the lawsuit.
One of the text messages said: “It’s your fault, you know nothing is going to happen, (expletive) you for going to the authorities.”
The lawsuit alleges that white students continued to make “derogatory and racist comments” that she reported but were ignored by the district.
“Despite numerous attempts to communicate and ask for help from the district, Ms. Bedard was a victim of physical assaults, racial discrimination, as well as sexual and raced-based harassment without any support or protection for over a year,” the lawsuit states.
In addition to the federal lawsuit, Jodi Stosic filed a racial discrimination and harassment complaint in July 2019 against the district with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
The complaint references a student who allegedly harassed Bedard and is the child of a district employee.
But the Human Relations Commission complaint was met by a lawsuit in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court filed by the student’s parents against the Stosics accusing them of defamation, slander and libel.
That lawsuit, which is still pending, contends that Jodi Stosic made false and disparaging comments about their son, who previously was in a relationship with Bedard, both in public and on social media.
The Stosics claim in their federal action that the defamation lawsuit is “retaliatory in nature.”