Parents hope to file civil rights lawsuit against Fall River Joint Unified School District

By Sheila Sanchez 

BURNEY - Parents of two Japanese American students in the Fall River Joint Unified School District allege that education officials in this rural area near Redding allow and even condone racial discrimination in the classroom.

“There’s racism and discrimination here,” said Linda Davis, 45, the mother of the two students who says she’s trying to shine a light on the alleged discrimination and physical and verbal harassment toward her children at the district’s sole high school.

Davis’ daughter, Katie, 18, is no longer enrolled at Burney Junior-Senior High School, the seventh- through twelfth-grade predominantly white high school of 266 students where Davis says she was tormented throughout her high school years because of her ethnicity. She withdrew from the school on Jan. 30 and completed all her graduation requirements at home on March 2. She received her high school diploma March 16.

Davis’ son, Justin, 16, a freshman, is a wide receiver on the school’s football team. He was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3.

The children’s father, Robert Davis, 50, is half Japanese. His American father married a Japanese woman who comes from the Matsuda family. The children are therefore a quarter Japanese.

Making the allegations even more egregious is that the parents say when they have contacted district administrators seeking help as far back as last fall they have been denied immediate assistance or the allegations haven’t been taken seriously.

The Davis children have been attending district schools since the year 2000 when the couple moved their family moved from the Bay Area to Burney to work as state park rangers. Burney, a town of about 4,000 people, is located in eastern Shasta County.

Even as small children, the parents say, their kids would be called racial epithets such as “Jap” and “flat face,” and they endured the “name calling” for years thinking that it was something that unfortunately happens in other schools as well. The parents say they would let teachers know about the slurs during parent-teacher conferences, but that the verbal harassment continued.

But this school year, the parents contend, the racial intolerance escalated to an all-time high with students taking a violent and threatening tone to the hate campaign, singling the youth out and pointing out the ethnic differences in demeaning and humiliating ways that left their children emotionally wounded and scared to be on campus.

The parents say school administrators failed to help in a timely manner despite bringing complaints to school Vice Principal Peggy Snelling, who's married to District Superintendent Larry Snelling, last fall.

“You end up feeling really helpless,” Linda Davis said.

The retired ranger is hoping to find an attorney to bring a racial discrimination lawsuit against the district to hold administrators accountable and stop the alleged ongoing harassment and discrimination for the sake of her son and other ethnic minorities enrolled there now and in the future.

The parents have contacted the San Francisco-based civil rights organization Japanese American Citizens League. JACL Regional Director Patty Wada has helped the couple by drafting a letter to Larry Snelling urging him to respond quickly to the allegations.

“Racism is not to be tolerated in any form. It’s the law. Students are entitled to be and learn in an environment in which they feel safe,” Wada wrote Snelling in January.

They have also reached out to government officials such Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber; Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, who called Superintendent Snelling inquiring about the problem, and California Superintendent of Schools Jack O’Connell. Aanestad and O’Connell referred the case to the Office of Equal Opportunity at the California Department of Education.

CDE spokeswoman Tina Jung wouldn’t confirm whether the parents have contacted the department about the case due to its confidentiality policy, but said the OEO only investigates incidents in which administrators such as teachers are accused of discrimination against students and not incidents in which students are accused of discrimination against other students.

She also said the department would help the district receive ethnic “sensitivity” training.

The parents have also contacted Tom Armelino, superintendent of the Shasta County Office of Education; Fall River Joint Unified School District Board of Education President Valerie Lakey, who told them in an e-mail she would let Larry Snelling handle the matter. They have also contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which is reviewing the allegations for appropriate action.

Angela Chan, with the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus, has asked the parents to write a chronological account of every alleged discriminatory incident against their children, to possibly file a complaint with the United States Department of Education, but Linda Davis said she doesn’t expect the organization to do anything with the case.

“We’re at the end of our rope,” The Hollister transplant said. “I can see why the school district does the things it does ... it’s because it gets away with it and nobody is willing to investigate (it) and make it stop.

In January, the parents also filed a complaint about the alleged discrimination with the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department, which is now being reviewed by the District Attorney’s Office.

Among some of the most disturbing allegations are:

• Both children have been called racial slurs such as “Jap,” “Asian kid,” and “flat face” for years without any retribution against perpetrators or any interference from those in classroom supervisory roles such as teachers and school administrators.

• When Katie was in tenth grade, a social studies teacher who no longer works at the school made her sit in the back of the classroom because she was Japanese while she taught about Pearl Harbor.

• Justin and Katie reported racial harassment in the classroom 12 times to food science teacher Connie Signs without any immediate action until this past January.

• Expelled student Cameron Bennett brandished a knife at Justin outside of his science class while making a slashing motion across his neck in a threatening gesture. The knife was also brought out during math class the same day without any teacher doing anything about until two weeks later.

• Justin says students have chased him a couple of times and have thrown snowballs at him while yelling, “Peg the Asian kid.”

• Justin says student Ryan Phipps, a member of the high school football team, stated in his near proximity “Japs can’t play football, they’re too short.”

• Justin claims he’s been the victim of ongoing harassment with other students stealing his football cleats, gloves and clothing and breaking into his locker to destroy a custom-made sweatshirt that bore his name and the name of the school.

• In January Justin says boys in his P.E. class smeared a dirty, sweaty shirt on his face, throwing their shoes on him. According to the parents, Justin overheard the boys say he didn’t belong at the school and “needed to go back to the rice fields.”

• Bennett told Katie that “Justin was a coward” and that’s why he wasn’t in the food science class one day. Things escalated with Bennett grabbing brownies she had baked and calling her “World War II.” Fed up with the harassment, Katie reportedly told him to “shut the f… up.” He supposedly responded by slamming down his fist and calling her a “f...... Asian b....”

• During Chinese New Year, school counselor Cynthia Carstens wrote in a newsletter the politically incorrect name for the festival “Happy Asian New Year.” The Chinese celebrate the holiday, and not the Japanese or a majority of Asian people.

• Carstens last November reportedly insisted to Katie that her ethnicity was either Native American or Hispanic despite her affirmation that she was Japanese.

Larry Snelling said he met with the parents, school principal Tom Puskarich, and vice principal Peggy Snelling, soon after he found out about the allegations. He also said the parents never contacted district and school officials to formally complain about the alleged ongoing racial discrimination in more than three months until he received a complaint letter from them this past January.

“From Sept. 25 to Jan. 9 there was no contact with either the principal at the high school, or the superintendent,” Snelling said. “Not that it excuses it (the student on student harassment and teacher inaction), but the main culprit is a kid who is a special ed student who probably doesn’t make very good decisions in any area of his life, that’s just the nature of his handicap." That student is Cameron Bennett, according to Linda and Robert Davis.

Snelling said Bennett was expelled in February for one year after a teacher corroborated the knife-brandishing incident after interviewing every pupil in the class and two youths substantiated what Justin had reported.

He added that two other boys were also found guilty of bullying Justin and were suspended for a combined 16 days. Those students, according to the parents, are Brian Pierce and Dustin Hood, Bennett’s accomplices who subjected Justin to constant verbal and physical harassment.

The parents say the bullying against their son continues to this day. On March 10, three additional boys were suspended for harassing Justin. Another classic example, they say, of a teacher turning a blind eye to the ongoing intolerance.

Snelling concurred with the parents that the school needs racial diversity and sensitivity training, particularly after the incident in which the school counselor ignorantly lumped the Chinese with other Asian ethnicities. “This probably shows some education needs to go on here ... no doubt that we could probably use some education ... but in no way shape or form have I felt that someone has turned a blind eye (to discrimination allegations) ... even though this is the perception of the parents,” he said. “It wasn’t something that was done to do anything disrespectful.”

Asked whether the district had any anti-racial discrimination policies, Snelling said his schools “abide by all state law” and follow strict student conduct, positive school climate and suspension and expulsion guidelines.

Snelling said it’s ironic his district is being accused of discriminating against Japanese students when “my mentor, my student teacher, my master teacher is (Japanese) I lived with him while I was in college and we ran around together. I coached for him and taught for him ... to be accused of being a racist ... I would not intentionally nor do I believe that we have anyone on our staff that would intentionally hurt someone’s feelings or insult them by doing something that was out of line.”

Snelling said he has spoken to JACL officials so they can provide racial diversity training in August when the school year begins. He said he would like student council leaders to attend the training.

Principal Puskarich denied there’s blatant racial discrimination at his school under his teachers’ watch, but acknowledged there were some students who did “some inappropriate things,” which he said were dealt with according to district policy.

“Do we have people making inappropriate comments? Yes. Is that unfortunate? Yes. Do we deal with it? Yes and we take it very seriously, but on the other hand people need to make sure when that happens it’s reported.”

Puskarich also said last year district officials conducted an anti-bullying assembly district wide for fourth-grade, fifth-grade and junior high school students.

Teacher Connie Signs says it’s unfair she’s being singled out by the Davis parents because she reported complaints from the Davis siblings as soon as they were brought to her attention. She admitted, however, to not reporting one incident against the Davis children in December and was apologetic.

“I’m just being singled out. I didn’t even know there was an issue that had been going on for eight years until the beginning of February. Nobody told me,” Signs said.

She said she asks students to write down allegations as soon as they’re brought to her attention.

Signs said she hasn’t faced disciplinary action for neglecting to report the incident that the parents say led to Katie’s withdrawal from the school. “I feel like this is all being blamed on me,” she said. “The last time I had this girl was in ninth grade. Both kids were in the class and it was a huge class. I didn't even know they were Japanese. To me it doesn’t matter. People are people to me.”

To Linda Davis, however, Sign’s apology and the district’s newfound desire to increase its racial awareness and sensitivity is a little too late.

“It didn’t have to come to this for my child or the other ... if somebody had stopped this way back when he (Bennett) wouldn’t have even needed to be expelled.”

She said the alleged harassment and discrimination has taken a heavy toll on the family.

“It gets all of us different. Justin is just so afraid. He internalizes things. He’s afraid to go to school. He lies on his bed in the dark with the blinds closed.

“Katie just gave up … after your kid is in school for 13 years as a parent you wait for that graduation ceremony. You want to hear her name called. She doesn’t get to go to her senior prom. She’s a six-year music student who doesn’t get to go on the senior band trip for competition. That’s all gone. I can’t blame her. She stuck it out longer than I think I could have.

“For my husband and myself is frustrating trying to deal with our kids. Keep them headed in the right direction. It’s hard dealing with the school district. It’s hard to go to meetings where Mr. Snelling is nasty to us, which is mind boggling to us when our children have been victims. I feel very isolated.”

Floyd Mori, national executive director of the San Francisco-based JACL, said he had spoken to Snelling who corroborated all the incidents and assured him they had disciplined all the students involved.

“This is a good opportunity for educating both teachers and faculty about the issue of tolerance. We’ve talked about developing a workshop to educate on racial tolerance and make this a learning experience,” Mori said.

“Our concern is that there is learning and justice. These are children. We’re not dealing with adults. We’re holding them accountable. We’re going to be watching.”