Months after raising concerns in a tort claim alleging racial harassment at Eagle High School, a family on Monday filed a lawsuit against Ada County, the West Ada School District, its superintendent, the assistant principal of Eagle High and two teachers.
The lawsuit, filed by Eagle High graduate Jayden Hodge and her parents, Manzo and Cristina Hodge, on behalf of their other daughter, a minor who is not named in the suit, accuses violations of the students’ constitutional rights and depriving them of equal protection and due process.
The Hodge sisters faced “continuous” harassment from other students starting in 2021, according to the complaint. Both “were subjected to threats, racial slurs, and cyberbullying from peers, including messages on social media encouraging (the family’s younger daughter) to ‘kill yourself.’”
Students openly referred to the sisters using racial epithets in hallways and classrooms “without fear of reprisal,” according to the lawsuit. Despite the family’s numerous attempts to bring their concerns to school and district officials, the defendants “failed to act to address or mitigate the racial hostility,” they allege in the complaint.