A former Nauset Regional School District student on Cape Cod, identified as A.W., and his father, Damion Walker, filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against the school district for failing to protect A.W. from months of racial harassment.
Filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights, the complaint outlines A.W.’s harrowing ordeal. It alleges that NRMS knew A.W. was being racially tormented by classmates—including being called the N-word and a “slave monkey,” physically assaulted, and subjected to racist whipping gestures—but NRMS repeatedly minimized the harassment, questioned A.W.’s credibility, and treated him as the problem rather than protecting him. Alarming developments alleged include:
- School staff repeatedly alerted administrators that A.W. was being targeted because of his race.
- Aggressors admitted to using racial slurs against him and physically assaulting him.
- A school-ordered behavioral assessment concluded that A.W.’s peers, not A.W., were the source of the problem.
- Instead of protecting him, NRMS scrutinized A.W. and punished him by removing him from classes as though he were the offender.
- After months of unaddressed racial harassment, A.W. swallowed thirty pills. He told hospital staff that bullying at school was “100% the reason” he did it.
“No parent should have to watch their child go through what my son went through,” said Damion Walker, A.W.’s father. “When we send our kids to school, we should have confidence they are being cared for. But my son nearly died because of Nauset’s failure to protect him from extreme racism, and they must be held accountable.”
LCR states that “A.W.’s experience reflects a broader pattern at Nauset Regional School District of failing to adequately protect students from racial harassment while disproportionately disciplining Black students. Data show Black students in the district are disciplined at nearly three times the rate of their white peers.”
The lawsuit raises claims under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and various state constitutional and statutory provisions. The complaint demands systemic reforms to ensure no other child is subjected to racial harassment as A.W. was.
“Students are walking the same halls where A.W. was tormented—and Nauset still hasn’t fixed what enabled that injustice to happen. This case isn’t about one bad year or about a few bad bullies. It’s about a district that receives reports of Black students being harassed, and then looks the other way,” said Brooke Simone, attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights. “We filed this lawsuit on the first day of school because families deserve to know their kids will be safe as the year starts. No other child should be pushed to the edge. Nauset needs to be held accountable and fundamentally change how it responds to racial harassment.”
The complaint is available here.
