'Should get lynched': Former student sues school for ignoring racist attacks

A former student at a high school in Michigan is suing the school district and three of its administrators over what she says was a pattern of racism against her and other Black students, the Detroit Free Press reported.

In her lawsuit against the Hartland Consolidated School District, Tatayana Vanderlaan said administrators did nothing to stop repeated racist attacks, including students telling her she 'should get lynched."

Vanderlaan says that ever since she started at Hartland High School in 2019, students targeted her with the N-word and other slurs and administrators did nothing, even as the attacks escalated.

"I was told once that if I can't deal with what goes on in Hartland schools that maybe I should take it online, and just do my education that way," Vanderlaan told the Detroit Free Press.

Now 20-years-old and in college, she said she's seeking accountability.

"I really hope that other school districts ... don't take situations like this lightly," she said.

As the Detroit Free Press points out, her lawsuit claims that white students repeatedly called Vanderlaan racist names, including the N-word, and told her to "go back to her plantation." It claims students openly discussed lynching her, she was harassed and attacked on social media, students taunted her wearing a wig to cover her "ugly negro hair" and her teacher dismissed her complaints.

According to reporting from WLNS, four students faced charges related to the harassment.

"This goes far beyond teasing on the playground or calling somebody harmless names," Amanda Ghannam, an attorney representing Vanderlaan, said. "This was criminal behavior that the school district allowed to be perpetuated for months and months."

Read the full report over at the Detroit Free Press.