A furious Tennessee mom is suing the Sumner County Schools because, she says, the system did not do enough to stop the racist taunts and tirades against her daughter, News Channel 5 reports.
Wanda Rice of Hendersonville is claiming that her daughter Shannon, who was a student at the Hendersonville High School and a member of the girls’ basketball team, was verbally abused, pushed around and taunted by her teammates because of her skin color, the news site reports.
The lawsuit, which was scheduled to be filed on Tuesday, said that Shannon was called “n—ger” by her teammates, and the girls often teased her, saying that the locker rooms “smelled like black people” when Shannon and another black teammate were present.
The coaches, the lawsuit alleges, just laughed along with the students sometimes.
Wanda Rice filed a complaint with the director of Sumner County Schools in February and was promised an investigation into the situation, but she has heard nothing since.
“As a parent it’s very shocking, as my daughter is recounting a story of where she had to endure her teammates—who are supposed to be a family,” the mother told the station. “They say ‘We’re like a family’—well, family doesn’t do that to you.”
Shannon has since been removed from the school and is being homeschooled.
Read more at News Channel 5.