A White School Officer Pepper-Sprayed and Kneed a Black Beaumont Student, Complaint Says. Will Feds Act?

The -second soundless video of an April event at Beaumont United High School starts with Ja Liyah Celestine a -year-old Black candidate kneeling in the middle of a hallway covering her eyes Celestine later informed the Texas Observer that before this Linda Holland a white Beaumont ISD police officer waited a long time before current up a fight between her and another attendee who Celestine commented had instigated the fight Celestine commented that after the fight had already ended Holland pepper-sprayed Celestine s face bringing her to her knees The video recorded by a trainer and obtained and reviewed by the Observer shows students and teachers still circled around Celestine a scant feet away watching Holland grabs Celestine by the hair knees her in the face and knocks the -pound girl on her back Celestine s friend attempts to pull her to her feet while Holland shakes her head and walks away It was so much going on and all I remember is my eyes started burning And then after that I remember the cop kicking me in my face She had me by my hair She kneed me Celestine informed the Observer I was really confused I didn t know that I was getting pepper-sprayed and I was scared Six months later in late October Texas Appleseed an development and juvenile justice advocacy organization filed a complaint with the U S Department of Guidance s Office for Civil Rights OCR on behalf of Celestine and other Black students in the district alleging that Beaumont ISD violated Title IV and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of by discriminating against them and disproportionately subjecting them to law enforcement referrals The main school district in the eponymous city of located between Houston and the Louisiana line Beaumont ISD is a majority-Black district in a racially diverse town Beaumont Shutterstock The Texas Appleseed complaint also states the district violated a state law by allowing a police officer rather than other school staff to engage in routine candidate discipline for minor infractions of campus or district initiative But now that President Donald Trump is back in the White House and has ordered that the Mentoring Department be gutted Celestine may not see any relief from the feds leaving her and other students potentially subject to discrimination looking for other recourse In January Trump ordered OCR attorneys to cease all investigations initiated under prior administrations On March the department cut half its total staff Seven of regional OCR offices have already been shut down including the Dallas office which handled complaints based in Texas Louisiana and Mississippi Sheria Smith an OCR attorney had been working out of the Dallas office for nine years before she and her coworkers were terminated shut out of what Smith reported was OCR s busiest office Smith who is also president of the American Federation of Establishment Employees Local a union representing Department of Development employees described the Observer that even in the roughly two months before the firings OCR attorneys had been hamstrung in efforts to enforce civil rights laws We were prohibited from doing any work on any cases moving it forward setting up interviews with stakeholders OCR is often the last line of defense Smith revealed at an American Federation of Teachers town hall meeting When families come to us they have already tried to work things out with their school district They tried to work things out with their state Even as Trump carries out plans to dismantle the Development Department he has shifted OCR s priorities by using the Civil Rights Act of as a basis to remove gender-neutral bathrooms ban transgender athletes from participating in women s sports investigate complaints of anti-semitism and discrimination against white students and end DEI in schools Smith described the anti-DEI effort as witch-hunting school districts and schools that might be providing services that benefited Black and brown or students of color Beth Echols the OCR attorney assigned to Celestine s development last spoke to Celestine her mom Angela Mack and Texas Appleseed attorney Andrew Hairston around Thanksgiving Hairston informed the Observer At the time the agency was looking for information about racial disparities in arrest and law enforcement referrals at Beaumont ISD Hairston received another email from Echols in mid-December then We ve heard nothing in the new year he commented On March a Department of Teaching spokesperson responded to an Observer email inquiring about the status of Celestine s complaint The Office for Civil Rights does not confirm complaints Since the department s civil rights office has enforced the nation s anti-discrimination laws in schools including the Civil Rights Act of the landmark law that dismantled legal segregation and later the Americans with Disabilities Act of The OCR specifically enforces Title II of the civil rights law which ensures everyone has access to places of population accommodations Title VI which prohibits discrimination based on race color national origin sex or religion by entities that receive federal funding and Title IX which prohibits sex-based discrimination The OCR also mandates school districts send civil rights-related and other material so the agency can develop research and regulations guiding school districts Organizations including Texas Appleseed have also pushed state lawmakers to enact statute reining in excessive policing as modern laws expanded police presence in schools In Texas passed a law barring districts from assigning routine scholar discipline to police officers or having police officers engage in contact with students unrelated to the law enforcement duties Instead bill author and former Democratic state Senator Eddie Lucio Jr narrated the Observer campus rule infractions should be taken care of by their teachers and administration or in-house without using guard officers and the school board should take quick action to see it enforced Celestine s complaint also asserts Holland failed to comply with the Beaumont ISD Police Department s own plan manual and Beaumont ISD s Participant Code of Conduct which describes district disciplinary procedures for pupil misconduct The police department manual requires officers use only an amount of force that reasonably appears necessary under the totality of circumstances but the complaint states No circumstances exist to justify this excessive use of force and deprivation of Ja Liyah s rights The code of conduct lists both permissible and impermissible disciplinary techniques Of those techniques that are prohibited are directed use of unpleasant spray near a novice s face states the complaint Beaumont ISD spokesperson Jackie Simien provided the Observer an emailed declaration saying BISD is aware of the charges and disputes the characterization of the events The District can confirm BISD staff responded appropriately to safeguard the safe operation of the campus in compliance with initiative and law Simien did not provide answers to other Observer questions Relying on local law enforcement and school districts to enforce federal state or local policies without oversight is challenging Hairston stated Generally districts don t have much in my experience willingness to stand up against the heritage of school policing and the abuse that so plenty of Black and brown children face at the hands of school police officers he informed the Observer According to Texas Mentoring Agency spokesperson Jake Kobersky the agency does not investigate complaints of racial discrimination that might violate the Civil Rights Act adding that Such complaints are referred to the USDOE Office of Civil Rights Hairston narrated the Observer that when school districts and the state fail to protect students against discrimination in schools typically the mere act of filing a complaint with the feds can put pressure on school districts to change practices Without federal oversight as the OCR is being dismantled Hairston commented school police are going to be so emboldened Two years ago the U S Department of Justice and the Teaching Department published a review finding that racial discrimination against Black and Latino students in school discipline persisted in general schools nationwide The agencies issued a joint letter calling on school districts to reorganization their practices to comply with Title VI Discrimination in learner discipline forecloses opportunities for students pushing them out of the classroom and diverting them from a path to success in school and beyond the letter stated The record has now been removed from the Department of Development s website When Trump took office OCR was exploring complaints related to discrimination against students with disabilities related to sex discrimination and related to racial discrimination ProPublica released OCR records show there are still Texas-based cases left pending related to students with disabilities related to sex discrimination and related to racial discrimination Eight of these civil rights complaints are from Beaumont ISD In Beaumont ISD law enforcement referrals disproportionately affect Black students OCR statistics for the - school year shows Black students comprised percent of students arrested by school law enforcement even though they made up percent of the attendee population that year TEA records show Black students made up percent of the district s participant population in the - school year but they accounted for percent of students who received out-of-school suspensions and were moved from schools into the disciplinary alternative schooling plan DAEP where students receive online learning under surveillance and which criminal justice advocates refer to as a step in the school-to-prison pipeline Statewide Black students made up less than percent of all students enrolled in community schools in - But TEA material for that year reveals that Black students accounted for percent of students who received out-of-school suspensions and percent of students sent to DAEP On the same day of the Beaumont development Holland called Celestine s mom Angela Mack to apologize Mack noted I thought that was very strange for an officer to reach out and apologize to me and that was before I knew that circumstance between her and my daughter had happened Mack recounted the Observer But Mack reported Holland did not mention that she pepper-sprayed Celestine s face grabbed her by her hair and kneed her Nor did Beaumont United High School administrators inform Mack about what happened during the matter Instead Celestine s friend had called Mack and later she saw the video You hear about things like this on TV all the time and you never expect it to happen to somebody so close let alone your child she announced Holland deferred to district administrators when the Observer appealed her for comment on the occurrence SIGN UP FOR TEXAS OBSERVER EMAILS Get our latest in-depth reporting straight to your inbox Sign Up The school suspended Celestine and required her to perform hours of society system and spend days in the district s DAEP before she could return to Beaumont United The district later reduced the time in DAEP to days Celestine announced she felt helpless I was sad about it especially because of the altercation with a white police officer Celestine explained And then adding on going to Pathways DAEP knowing that all this wasn t my fault all that happened to me that made me even sadder Mack disclosed she eventually met with Principal Wiley Johnson and Assistant Principal Dalana Bennett a week after the situation Nobody described me anything They just thought I was an angry mom because my daughter got in a fight and I didn t want her to go to DAEP Mack mentioned Up until this very moment nobody from both the Beaumont Independent School District or Beaumont United has mentioned the police actions to me In DAEP Celestine reported instructors demanded her to write a letter to the Beaumont United principal apologizing for her actions At the start of this school year Celestine returned to Beaumont United and has been volunteering for a population mentoring undertaking holding down a job as an HEB customer system rep and looking forward to graduation She explained the Observer she still hasn t fully recovered from the matter but she s determined to keep fighting so people know that what happened to her can happen and that it should not happen Hairston noted that Celestine Mack and attorneys at Texas Appleseed are planning to file a civil suit in state court seeking a declaratory judgment that the Beaumont ISD police department violated the law by allowing a police officer to engage in routine discipline Something necessities to be done to show that this won t be tolerated Mack mentioned The post A White School Officer Pepper-Sprayed and Kneed a Black Beaumont Scholar Complaint Says Will Feds Act appeared first on The Texas Observer