SOUTHWICK — A Superior Court judge approved in early October a financial settlement between the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District and an attorney representing a Southwick Regional School student and her mother, who had alleged the district was negligent in its response to the Black student being racially harassed in 2023 and 2024, according to court records.
“The parties negotiated at arm’s length over several months and have agreed to a settlement of all claims by the Plaintiffs for the sum of $50,000 to be paid by the Defendant,” according to a joint petition filed in October in Hampden County Superior Court.
The settlement agreement was reached between the district and Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights on behalf of Allyson Lopez and her daughter, who was racially bullied in one instance in 2023 and another in February 2024.
The lawsuit was filed anonymously by a Jane and Janet Doe, but Lopez confirmed in July that she and her daughter were the plaintiffs in the civil action. That was also confirmed by district Superintendent Jennifer Willard.
It stemmed from a racist incident that was reported to administrators of the regional school district in February 2024 by Lopez after learning her daughter and another Black student were included as chattel in the “auction” conducted by a group of Southwick Regional School students on Snapchat, a social media app.
During a tense School Committee meeting in late February 2024 to allow the public to comment on the allegations, Lopez said that her daughter had been called the “N-word” at least five times before she contacted school administrators on Feb. 9.
Of the $50,000 settlement, $6,000 was deducted to cover attorneys’ cost and fees, according to court records.
The lawsuit also says that Lopez “fully understands that the settlement proceeds allocated to her minor daughter are not in any way to be used for her personal us.”
The $44,000 has been deposited in an education fund for Lopez’s daughter.
Lawyers for Civil Rights, on behalf of the Lopezes, also filed an administrative complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging the incidents of racial harassment had violated the student’s rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the court records.
To establish a claim that the student’s rights were violated, the Lopezes must prove that the district was “deliberately indifferent” to the acts of student-on-student harassment.
The district responded that its response to the allegations were reasonable and that the Lopezes couldn’t “show that it was ‘deliberate indifference,’” according to the court records.
In March, Lawyers for Civil Rights submitted a demand letter to the district as a formal notification that it wanted to negotiate a settlement.
“The settlement of this case constitutes a compromise of disputed legal and factual claims,” according to the court records.
The Lopezes “strongly” believed in the merits of their claims, however, “they recognize that continued proceedings would be time-consuming, costly, and uncertain,” according to the records.
The mock slave auction led to six students being charged with a variety of crimes.
The six students, all between the ages of 13 and 14 at the time, involved in the mock slave auction were charged by Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni and included one student with felony interference with civil rights, threat to commit a crime, and witness interference. Another student was charged with felony interference with civil rights and threat to commit a crime. The remaining four were charged with one count each of threatening to commit a crime.
Because those cases are heard in Juvenile Court, the dispositions are not public.
Lopez also requested an investigation by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Its report provided a detailed timeline of what occurred, the district’s response, pointed out two lapses in policy, found it had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and ordered the district to take corrective action involving its bullying policy, which it did.
The Westfield News learned that every party involved in the settlement signed non-disclosure agreements.
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