The White Principal Who Expelled a Black Student After Racist Incident Is in Big Trouble

A Portland principal got exactly what was coming for her after a bullying incident with a student was taken way too far. Now, months after the racist ordeal, his family is finally getting some justice.

You never want to hear the heartbreaking news that your son is being picked on at school, so when Karis Stoudamire-Phillips and her husband, Mike Phillips, got a phone call about their son, they pulled up to the Catholic elementary school looking for answers.

The secretary at the Madeleine School contacted the parents after their 4th grade son reportedly heard another student call him the N-word after recess, according to Newsweek. “We were looking for a path forward. Just tell us that you actually do have a plan in place and that we’re going to get– we’re going to move forward with this,” Stoudamire-Phillips told KGW8.

The parents walked into the office of the school’s principal, a white woman named Tresa Rast, but instead of receiving answers, they were met with backlash, as we previously reported. “She [Rast] stated that, if we don’t trust her, then we can take him out. He can go somewhere else,” Phillips added.

That student’s father told The Oregonian Rast believed their son had made up the incident. She allegedly even recommended the 4th grader go to therapy to be “deprogrammed” from the anti-racist training he previously received at public school.

Well, this didn’t sit right with the married couple, so they refused to leave her office, and that’s when the unthinkable happened. “She turned and started walking towards the phone, and we both said, ‘She’s going to call the police,'” Stoudamire-Phillips continued. “I watched her fingers. I watched her fingers dial 911.”

The cops arrived to the school, citing a “disturbance priority.” Eventually, the officers left without incident, but what happened next even had the school district raising eyebrows.

A few days later, the Phillips family contacted Madeleine for an update to the investigation into the racist incident. The only answer they got to their questions came later that evening when they were informed that the investigation was closed. The next day, their son was expelled because of violations to the parent conduct code, according to the school.

The 4th grader was excited to go on a school field trip happening that Friday, but he wasn’t allowed. “He said, ‘Please don’t tell me I have to change schools,'” his mother recalled. “When we told him ‘you cannot go back to the Madeleine– they’ve decided that you can no longer be a student at the Madeleine,’ I don’t know how long he cried.”

The family soon obtained legal council. “We need a formal public apology from the Madeleine School and the Parish, and the Archdiocese of Portland,” attorney Manuella Tshala said. “We want the resignation of Principal Rast. We want support services for this 10-year-old boy and the family.”

Now, it seems they got their wish. Principal Rast was soon placed on leave. She was even offered the chance to resign, which she declined, according to Fox 12. Ultimately, the district fired her . Since then, the family started a petition to address ongoing incidents of racism at the school. It has over 5,000 signatures.