Editor’s Note: This story includes graphic, racist and homophobic language.

A lawsuit was filed Thursday against Pueblo School District 60 and an elementary school principal for years of bullying and racial harassment of a 12-year-old girl.

The bullying got so bad that the stress sent her to the hospital for emergency stomach surgery and put her years behind in reading and math. This was despite repeated pleas from her mother, Salina Cummings, to the school and the district to stop the verbal and physical abuse from other students.

The process supports racial discrimination based on Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin.

It also alleges sex discrimination based on Title IX and includes a third equal protection claim alleging that the racial hostility that Jaleigha’Nisa, who is black and Mexican, experienced was so severe and pervasive that she was deprived of equal educational opportunities.

“They were telling me to go back to Africa and eat chicken off the ground and calling me the N-word and also threatening to hang me and shoot me in my sleep,” Jaleigha’Nisa said softly.

She doesn’t like to talk about her time at Columbian Elementary School.

Shanna Lewis/KRCC

The lawsuit alleges Pueblo 60 showed “deliberate indifference” to Jaleigha’Nisa’s racist abuse and harassment by failing to investigate, discipline and take corrective action to protect her. He considers the conduct of Colombian director Jimmie Pool to be shocking.

“The defendants should be held accountable so that no other student in the school district ever suffers in the same way,” the lawsuit said.

Pueblo School District 60 has not yet reviewed the lawsuit.

The District has policies on nondiscrimination, harassment, and bullying that require schools to conduct timely investigations and resolve complaints. Under federal law, schools are required to protect students from racial and gender discrimination.

Sthe suit filed against Pueblo School District 60 alleges constant harassment

Jaleigha’Nisa transferred to Columbian Elementary in fourth grade after being bullied by peers at three other schools. At one of those schools, a student threatened to stab and kill her.

Within weeks at Columbian, which last year had nine black students out of the school’s 333, classmates hurled racial slurs at him in person and on social media. The students threatened to stab and kill Jaleigha’Nisa and burn her to death in her sleep. They punched her.

They called her “dike,” “N—” and “porch monkey” and slapped her across the face, according to the lawsuit. The school once issued a “no contact contract” between students when Jaleigha’Nisa retaliated once when a student threatened to hurt Jaleigha’Nisa’s younger sister.

Cummings, Jaleigha’Nisa’s mother, went to the school repeatedly to report the incidents to school officials and school board members. She said the Pool principal would either downplay the incidents or promise to speak to the children who torment Jaleigha’Nisa.

Courtesy Salina Cummings

“I’ve been up there literally every day, every day trying to get Mr. Pool to do something about it,” said Salina Cummings, Jaleigha’Nisa’s mother.

She said there was never mediation and none of the students involved in her daughter’s bullying were ever reprimanded.

Schools required to investigate

“They need to investigate and respond once they have adequate knowledge of this type of racist and sexist harassment and bullying that’s going on, which didn’t happen here,” said attorney Iris Halpern, who is also supervising. a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against Douglas County School District. “The school didn’t even investigate until I got involved.”

Schools don’t need to immediately suspend a child, but they do need to convey to the bullying student and their family that continued discriminatory behavior will have consequences that will escalate if not stopped.

But for Jaleigha’Nisa, according to the lawsuit, because little or no follow-up was done to investigate the events, the threats and violence escalated.

“I was very stressed and so nervous … and I felt insecure about myself,” said Jaleigha’Nisa, who speaks in a quiet voice.

Courtesy Salina Cummings

When fifth grade began in 2023-2024, racial harassment from at least 11 students continued. They called her racial slurs and threatened to jump Jaleigha’Nisa, shoot her, hang her and come to her house to hurt her.

Cummings said the school dismissed racial bullying as “roasting” – where people ridicule each other, escalating the cruelty with each verbal or social media jab.

“I don’t know how any school can say whether or not you call a game, that students are allowed to escalate racist comments and threats to each other,” Halpern said. “It’s not a game.”

The district has not responded, the lawsuit says

Cummings reported the students’ names to school officials and showed screenshots from other students. She requested mediation with other families of troubled students, but the district denied her requests, according to the lawsuit. It claimed the school district never engaged in a formal investigation of the numerous complaints she and witnesses routinely reported.

Cummings could not understand why the situation was falling on deaf ears.

“Why does she have to go through so much at 11 and 10 years old and you let her voice and her cries be silenced to the point where it’s physically harming her? Not only that, but I’ve affected him mentally and it’s affecting his education as well.”

Jaleigha’Nisa, a quiet and introverted child, often burst into tears. Her grades dropped to all F’s. She didn’t want to go to school. She was anxious and withdrawn. Self-confidence evaporated. She told her mother she didn’t want to be black anymore.

“There’s a loss of respect for one’s own identity and history, which I know was very important to (Salina Cummings) for her children to be proud of their race,” Halpern said.

Research shows that bullying and harassment in children and young people will have a lifelong impact on physical and mental health, earning capacity and the ability to build networks and relationships with other children.

“It has a lot of adverse ramifications that last for many, many years, some of which may not even be recoverable,” Halpern said.

Hospitalized for stress

In October 2023, Jaleigha’Nisa, in severe pain with a temperature of 103.5 degrees, had to undergo emergency surgery, which her pediatrician said was due to stress affecting her gastrointestinal tract. Racial harassment and violent threats continued.

When it was apparent that the school was not protecting her daughter, Cummings turned to community groups for help, such as the NAACP and the Pueblo Human Relations Commission. In a meeting with school administrators, Principal Pool said he had spoken with individual students throughout the school year, but felt it “didn’t rise to the same conflict resolution techniques.” School administrators insisted they were investigating and disciplining the students.

A doctor recommended that Jaleigha’Nisa be removed from Columbia because of the stress and trauma she endured at school and that they posed a risk to her safety and well-being. In January 2024, following a formal complaint by Cummings, who obtained an attorney, the district conducted an investigation that the lawsuit alleges downplayed allegations of racial discrimination, cast doubt on Jaleigha’Nisa’s credibility, implied that Cumming’s complaints were not of long duration and he dismissed the seriousness of the racial abuse suffered by Jaleigha’Nisa.

The suit seeks damages for physical, emotional and economic harm as a result of the discrimination suffered by Jaleigha’Nisa.

Cummings said her daughter is doing better at her new school, but is still far behind in reading and math and has been placed in a special education plan. Jaleigha’Nisa has therapy twice a week to address severe trauma.

Jaleigha’Nisa said she hopes the trial will provide more protection for other children.

“Other black or mixed kids, if they’re going through something, I want them to know that it’s okay to stand up and talk about it.”