Students at Peoria Unified School District’s Vistancia Elementary experienced a “school-wide hostile environment” due to racial harassment, according to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
The OCR determined that the district failed to address harassment of students on the basis of race, color, and national origin, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Peer harassment included race-based slurs, such as targeting the N-word and “ching chong” at students, mocking police killings of Black people, pulling eyes back to mock Asian students, mimicking “Heil Hitler” salutes, drawing Swastikas on photographs of students’ faces on notebooks and in a bathroom, and saying Black people “do not deserve to live” and “should die,” a student’s skin looked like “burnt” food, and that a student should “go back to [their] country” and “eat dog,” according to a news release issued from the Office for Civil Rights.
The district has agreed to a resolution to ensure nondiscrimination at the school.
“Every student in every school deserves to learn free from discriminatory harassment,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon stated in the release. “Peoria Unified School District today commits to come into compliance with longstanding federal civil rights requirements, ensuring that district students learn without discrimination based on race or national origin.”
The investigation stems from a complaint filed in November 2021.
Harassment by employees at Vistancia involved repeated touching of and comments exclusively about a Black student’s hair. The persistent, pervasive, and severe harassment and the district’s ineffective response caused significant and enduring academic, social, and emotional harm to the student who was the subject of the OCR complaint, the release stated.
“Moreover, OCR found that a school-wide hostile environment existed because at least a dozen other students of color at the school were likewise harassed based on race, color, or national origin by numerous peers,” the release stated. “Although administrators and teachers at the school were aware of widespread harassment, the district repeatedly responded ineffectively, or not at all, to reported harassment, allowing the harassment to continue on a consistent basis and to create a school-level hostile environment. The district also did not offer any supports or remedies to students who were harassed.”
The district has agreed to comply with a resolution to take steps to ensure nondiscrimination based on race, color, and national origin in its education programs and activities.
In a statement from PUSD sent to Peoria Independent, officials said the district has been cooperating with the OCR regarding the complaint at Vistancia Elementary School.
“We are moving forward with the voluntary resolution agreement as we are confident in our new leadership to build a positive and inclusive environment for students and staff at Vistancia,” the statement read. “Peoria Unified remains unwavering in our commitment to provide equal educational opportunities to all students and an environment that is free from harassment of any kind.”
Megan Bennett took over as the principal of Vistancia Elementary School July 1, 2022, replacing former principal Josh Rawlings.
The district’s commitments in the voluntary resolution agreement include:
• Providing supports and remedies, where appropriate, to students who were subjected to peer harassment based on race, color, or national origin at the school.
• Conducting a climate assessment that examines the prevalence of harassment at the school, the hostile environment created by the widespread harassment, the school’s and district’s handling of reports of harassment, and measures for reducing harassment at the school and for improving the district’s response to reports of harassment.
• Issuing an anti-harassment statement and issuing a notice to parents about identifying and reporting harassment and about how the district is expected to respond.
• Reviewing, revising, and disseminating policies, forms, and record-keeping procedures related to harassment based on race, color, and national origin.
• Training staff about legal requirements under Title VI, reporting and responding to harassment, prohibited retaliation, cultural competency, and implicit bias. And,
• Providing developmentally appropriate educational programs about how to recognize and report racial harassment for school students.
Philip Haldiman can be reached at phaldiman@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @philiphaldiman.
Meet Philip Haldiman is an award-winning journalist who most recently took first place for investigative reporting in 2023 from Arizona Newspapers Association. He joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2015, covering Sun City West his first year. Since 2016, he has covered the city of Peoria. Prior to coming to INI, he was a reporter with The Arizona Republic for seven years, covering numerous cities throughout the Valley. Before that, he was a freelance writer.
Community: Haldiman spearheads the Peoria Independent Hometown Heroes Awards program, honoring local individuals and businesses that give back to the community. He has hosted local candidate forums over the years and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Haldiman also served as a member of the Journalism Program Community Advisory Board at Glendale Community College. Outside journalism, Haldiman served as a member of the city of Peoria Complete Count Committee for the Census, 2019-2020. Lastly, he has served as a member of his HOA governing board since 2021.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications and a BA in Theater.
Random Fact: Haldiman is a fourth-generation Arizonan as well as wrote and produced an autobiographical comic book about his time spent in Hollywood and his life as a cult film star.
Hobbies: He enjoys hiking Arizona’s mountainous landscapes and is currently working on a play for the stage.
Peoria Unified School District,
Vistancia Elementary School,
hostile environment,
racial harassment,
investigation,
U.S. Department of Education,
Office for Civil Rights,
racism
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