A white teacher at a rural New York public school is accused of questioning a pair of light-skinned Black students about their fair complexions, asking both — in front of a classroom full of kids — if they were “‘pure-bred’ Black,” according to a staggering lawsuit obtained by The Independent.
Monique-Gale Messina, an educator at Eldred Junior Senior High School in Sullivan County, also scrutinized the texture of the teens’ hair, according to the suit, which was initially filed in New York State Supreme Court last month before being removed to White Plains federal court on Tuesday.
In response to complaints to the administration by the two students, who at the time were in the ninth and eleventh grades, the lawsuit says school district higher-ups said Messina could not possibly be bigoted “because… she ‘ate tacos’” — that is, Messina is LGBTQ.
Black pupils comprise four percent of the student body at Eldred Junior Senior High, or eight out of 230 kids in total, according to state data.
In an email on Wednesday, Jay Weinstein, the lawyer representing the two students, told The Independent, “I have no comment.” Attorney Gerald Smith, who represents the school district along with Messina and Eldred Central School District Superintendent Traci Ferreira, declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
The incident took place in an afternoon study hall in February, the lawsuit says, noting that both of the students, who are named in court filings as D.C. and T.B., along with their respective parents, “identify as members of the African-American race.”
In the midst of the period, for reasons “unbeknownst” to D.C. and T.B., Messina proceeded to quiz the two “about their light-colored skin tone and the texture of their hair, and whether each of the infant plaintiffs was a “‘pure-bred’ Black,” the suit alleges.
D.C. and T.B. reported Messina to the school district, which launched an investigation, according to the lawsuit. It says Messina was found to have “engaged in an inappropriate and racially discriminatory conversation that utilized discriminatory vocabulary and statements,” a violation of the state’s Dignity for All Students Act.
However, the suit goes on, Ferreira duly informed D.C. and T.B.’s parents “that Messina was not a person of prejudice because, upon information and belief, she ‘ate tacos,’ and… identified as a member of the gay and lesbian community.”
Ultimately, “despite the clear and unequivocal findings” of wrongdoing, Messina was not removed from the school, nor did the district take “any steps to protect [D.C. and T.B.] from being subjected to further acts of racial prejudice, discrimination, and unwarranted hate,” the suit contends.
The lawsuit argues that the school district failed D.C. and T.B. by keeping Messina on the payroll, because “it knew… or should have known prior to the time of the subject incident that [she] was a racially incentive and bigoted person.”
According to the Eldred School District Code of Conduct, “Racism, discrimination, and marginalization of any people or groups of people, whether intentional or not, have no place in our schools, our district or our community. Such actions damage not only those individuals and groups at which they are directed, but also our community as a whole.”
New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act, which was signed into law in 2010 and took effect two years later, aims to provide public school students with “a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment, and bullying.”
A Rochester, New York, public school teacher was placed on leave in 2022 after allegedly forcing Black students to wear shackles and pick seeds out of cotton bolls during a class discussion on slavery.
Earlier this year, a public school teacher in the Boston area was suspended for holding a mock slave auction while conducting a lesson on the economy of the southern states during colonial times.
Last week, a public school history teacher in Virginia was lambasted by the NAACP for passing around a piece of raw cotton during a lesson on slavery, which the civil rights organization said was “humiliating and deeply embarrassing” for Black students. The same school district had previously run into trouble for making students pretend to be runaway slaves during Black History Month.
In 2014, Eldred canceled its varsity football season over a hazing incident involving allegations of “teabagging,” or, players rubbing their genitalia in their teammates’ faces.
D.C. and T.B. have since undergone mental health counseling to help them deal with the incident, according to the lawsuit. Their families have since moved to Pennsylvania, incurring significant expenses in relocating. They are demanding damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
