The mother of a black 12-year-old boy is seeking damages against a Southern California school district after her son's teacher went on a half-hour tirade laced with racism and profanity.
Katura Stokes filed a damage claim — typically a precursor to a lawsuit — on Thursday on behalf of her son against the Palmdale School District over comments made by a science instructor after a Zoom session with her son in January, the Orange County Register reported.
The sixth-grader attends Desert Willow Fine Arts, Science and Technology Magnet Academy in Palmdale, an Antelope Valley city northeast of Los Angeles. The student body is about 13 per cent African-American. In her complaint, Stokes said her son had struggled to complete class assignments using the district's online platform for distance learning, instituted because classrooms have been closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the complaint, science teacher Kimberly Newman, Stokes and her son had a Zoom session on January 20 to work out the problems and the teacher finally said the boy was caught up with his assignments.