WASHINGTON – A White Texan says he was targeted by classmates and teachers at his predominantly Hispanic school district because of his race, including being called “Whitey” by a math aide and being asked by a principal if he was listening to Dixie music.
In middle school band class in 2018, two students brought up “the evils of the white race in American history,” Brooks Warden said in his years-long lawsuit.
The Supreme Court on June 30 declined to decide if Warden can sue for racial harassment under the Civil Rights Act.
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The Austin Independent School District said Warden failed to show the alleged hostility was based on race, rather than his political views.
“This case has devolved into a publicity stunt fueled by partisan rhetoric and political opportunism,” lawyers for the school district told the Supreme Court. “Austin ISD does not condone harassment or bullying of any kind, and it regrets that Brooks had negative experiences with its students and staff members, but this is not a Title VI case.”
A federal judge dismissed the complaint. But the Louisiana-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals evenly divided over the issue.
One of the appeals judges who sided with Warden said the culture increasingly accepts – it not celebrates – racism against White people.
“Racism is now edgy and exciting—so long as it’s against whites,” Circuit Judge James Ho wrote.
Warden said the bullying began after he wore a MAGA hat on a middle school field trip in 2017. His lawyers said he should not have to prove that race was the main reason he was targeted instead of just one of the reasons.
The school district said Warden never complained that he was mistreated because of his race while he was a student there. That allegation came nearly a year after he sued and after a local judge had dismissed his multiple amended complaints against the school, lawyers for the district said.
The court, the lawyers said, should not “open the proverbial floodgates to civil liability by allowing students to sue their schools for race-based harassment every time they hear a political viewpoint about race that they do not share.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court declines case of White Texan claiming racial harassment
