Walton County (Georgia) School District discrimination complaints

After Georgia’s Walton County School District expelled and referred a Black middle school student with a disability to juvenile court, it denied the student the necessary support and services in its alternative school program, sparking two discrimination complaints by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The SPLC filed a state administrative due process complaint and a federal Office for Civil Rights discrimination complaint against the district. The filings say the school district ignored the SPLC’s requests to remedy the situation, which saw the Black student disproportionately disciplined and denied support and services necessary due to his disability.

The school expelled the student, E.C., after he was asked by a white student to hand a vape pen to another white student. The two white students involved in the incident, which violated school policy, were not expelled. Only E.C. was referred to a juvenile court for prosecution. He was then denied the necessary support and services in the school district’s online alternative school program, which he struggles to access because of his disability. The SPLC’s complaints describes how the school’s unilateral decision against E.C. is discriminatory and retaliatory, creating real-world consequences to E.C.’s ability to access a free appropriate public education and his ability to attend and graduate from college.

The SPLC filed a special-education formal complaint against the school district in July with the Georgia Department of Education over these ongoing individual and systemic violations. The Georgia Department of Education ruled in favor of E.C. on every issue alleged in the complaint. It ordered the school district to review and revise its policies, provide training to its special education teachers and administrators, and submit revised policies and training materials to the state for review.

Despite resolution of the complaint, E.C. continues to experience retaliation from the school district as outlined in the latest complaints filed.