The mother of two Black elementary school children filed a civil rights lawsuit against the California school district whose officials she alleges failed to protect her sons from months of severe racial harassment from other students, despite her repeated complaints.
Daphne Hawkins says classmates subjected her 7- and 10-year-old sons to a racist curriculum, dehumanizing racial slurs and racialized insults on a near-weekly basis at Mariposa Elementary School in Redlands, California, leaving both boys diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD.)
The insults, dating back to October 2024, included classmates calling the children “mud” and “tar ball,” and got worse two months later when students in her son’s first-grade class were introduced to the racially offensive caricature known as “Black Pete,” according to the lawsuit filed in San Bernardino Superior Court in March and obtained by Atlanta Black Star.
Performers traditionally depict Black Pete, a helper to Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa Claus, by painting their faces black and donning an afro wig and big red lips…