Students viciously bully black teen as a 'monkey' in racist video -- and school looks the other way: lawsuit

A family in Illinois is suing their local high school for allegedly doing nothing serious to discipline students who subjected their son to racist bullying.

The Peoria Journal-Star reports that the Metamora Township High School is being sued by a black student's family because it didn't take sufficient action against four white students who sent the black student a racist video.

According to the lawsuit, the white students in the video told the black student that they "used to own you back in the day," while making it clear that they were talking about black people; held up a stuffed monkey toy and said that, "This is a black person, right here"; and told the black student to "go back where you came from."

In response to seeing the video, the school suspended the students from playing for one game on the school's football team -- but allegedly took no other action.

"The defendants have repeatedly refused to investigate allegations of bullying and have failed to take appropriate action to deter students from bullying on the basis of race and other legally-protected categories," the suit alleges.

The high school defended itself in a public statement release to the Journal-Star.

"MTHS takes claims of bullying and discrimination very seriously," the school said. "MTHS has always and will continue to fully investigate and review any claim of bullying or discrimination, while taking appropriate action to address all such claims."