A husband and wife have filed a lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education on behalf of their two children.
Amos Winbush III and Tiffany Winbush claim in the lawsuit filed on Feb 16 that their 5-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter endured racial abuse from other students attending the predominately white Peck Slip School in Manhattan. Their children were subjected to being spat on, death threats and racial slurs, NBC News reports.
The lawsuit claims that the couple’s children have been subjected to “unimaginable racism” at the school and that teachers along with school officials have enabled the “racially hostile environment.”
“Amos and Tiffany Winbush’s children, K.W. and S.J.W., have endured unimaginable racism, physical and emotional trauma, violence, bullying, and other dehumanizing treatment at their New York City public elementary school known as Peck Slip,” says the lawsuit.
One semester a white female student told K.W. that “she needed to take a
bath, shower and scrub her skin really hard because her skin is brown and that’s dirty,” the lawsuit alleges.
A teary-eyed Winbush, CEO of a tech company, told NBC News he struggled with how his children have been treated.
“What do I say to a 10-year-old or a 5-year-old to make them not internalize these things?” he said. “That’s the part as a dad that breaks me.”
The lawsuit details the couple’s daughter being ridiculed about her hair and appearance while their son was spat on. The couple also noted that both of the children have been physically abused by white students. The kids have both been kicked, and the couple’s son has had his shirt ripped by another student who has threatened “to kill him” on more than one occasion.
“Teachers and school officials have fostered, enabled, and perpetuated a racially hostile environment at Peck Slip, and that environment has emboldened students to harass and abuse the Winbush…
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