Civil rights complaint filed against Southwick schools as a result of online mock slave auction

A federal civil rights complaint has been filed against the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional school district as well as Southwick Regional School on behalf of Skyla Lopez, an 8th grader in the district who was subject to an online mock slave auction by other students.

According to the complaint, Lopez faced harassment and discrimination for months leading up to the incident, including being called the N-word multiple times by white students.

The group Lawyers for Civil Rights in Boston filed the complaint with the Department of Education’s (DOE) Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

This is not the first complaint filed against the school district in relation to this incident. In March, the Greater Springfield NAACP filed a civil rights complaint with the Massachusetts Department of Education, which is currently pending, according to president of the organization, Bishop Talbert Swan II.

Swan alleges that racial discrimination has been ongoing in the district for years.

“We don’t want a simple addressing of the slave auction as a singular incident and problem,” Swan said. “It’s systemic, and therefore it needs to be looked at, it needs to be investigated and there needs to be some form of accountability at a higher level with this district.”

Swan said the Lawyers for Civil Rights saw what was happening in Southwick, and asked the NAACP what they could do to help. The law firm recommended escalating the civil rights complaint to the federal Department of Education.

Tasheena Davis, an attorney with the law firm, said the complaint seeks a federal investigation into how the district handled Lopez’s case and other possible incidents of racial discrimination in the past.

“It was also important to us that a third party take a look at the district and ensure that they’re doing everything to prevent this in the future,” Davis said.

Davis also said escalating the complaint grants the situation more attention, which means more pressure on the district to respond.

Six students involved with conducting the auction are facing criminal charges from the Hampden County district attorney’s office.

Davis and Swan both expressed hope that, as a result of the complaint, the Southwick school district will set strict policies to appropriately handle racial harassment and that systemic change will take place to reduce harm to students of color.

The Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional school district issued a statement saying that it will “review the complaint filed with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and work with legal counsel and the OCR to address the complaint.”

This story is a production of the New England News Collaborative. It was originally published by New England Public Media.