Two years ago the families of Jamal Welch, Elijah West, and Tyrell Wells, filed a suit against the University Place School District in the state of Washington for racial discrimination.
According to reports the three Black students were subjected to a discriminatory system of racial slurs, bad grading, and other types of harassment. They attended Curtis High School which only has 10 percent of Black students. The three students believed attending this school would prepare them for college; however, they were only subjected to racism.
Wells reported that students would write racial slurs on his desk along with his teacher consistently giving him unfair low grades. He also said his teacher said in class that because he was Black he would eventually commit a crime.
Wells gave a statement about his experience with The News Tribune:
“To this day, I have lingering stress and anxiety from my Curtis experience. While before I was easygoing and trusting of people, now I find that I hang back and analyze people before trusting them. I also am more defensive than I used to be, and feel like I need to justify or explain who I am since I learned at Curtis that people have stereotypes and biases against me.”
The school district denies most allegations under the terms of the settlement.
