close
close

Ourladyoftheassumptionparish

Part – Newstatenabenn

Michelle Obama’s Brother and Wife Settle Racial Bias Lawsuit Against University School of Milwaukee
patheur

Michelle Obama’s Brother and Wife Settle Racial Bias Lawsuit Against University School of Milwaukee

Michelle Obama’s brother and sister-in-law, Craig and Kelly Robinson, have settled and agreed to dismiss a 2022 lawsuit that alleged their children were unfairly barred from attending the University School of Milwaukee.

The Robinsons alleged that their two children were denied re-enrollment at the private school in retaliation for disagreeing with the school’s allegedly racist curriculum and treatment of students of color.

In response, USM attorneys said the school has the authority to make enrollment decisions. His school principal, Steve Hancock, said in a letter that the Robinson children were denied enrollment not because of their parents’ specific concerns, but because of the way their parents communicated those concerns.

The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice Tuesday, Milwaukee County Circuit Court records show. That means the case is permanently dismissed and cannot be brought back to court.

No details about the Oct. 8 deal have been made public.

“The Robinson children were model students at USM. Both parties regret that disagreements between the Robinsons and the school have resulted in the Robinson children no longer being members of the USM community. The parties will not comment further on this matter,” it said. reads in a statement. Joint statement from the Robinsons and USM.

The lawsuit was based on the Robinson family’s allegations of a racist curriculum and the treatment of students of color.

University School of Milwaukee, 2100 W. Fairy Chasm Road, River Hills, denied the Robinsons' 9- and 11-year-old children re-enrollment in school for the 2021-22 school year. His parents filed a lawsuit against the school, alleging racist bias.University School of Milwaukee, 2100 W. Fairy Chasm Road, River Hills, denied the Robinsons' 9- and 11-year-old children re-enrollment in school for the 2021-22 school year. His parents filed a lawsuit against the school, alleging racist bias.

University School of Milwaukee, 2100 W. Fairy Chasm Road, River Hills, denied the Robinsons’ 9- and 11-year-old children re-enrollment in school for the 2021-22 school year. His parents filed a lawsuit against the school, alleging racist bias.

Robinsons cited a “broader pattern” of poor treatment toward students of color

The two Robinson children began attending the University School of Milwaukee, a private school in River Hills, in 2016. The Robinsons’ lawsuit alleged that the school made a “vindictive and wrongful decision” when it decided not to renew the enrollment contracts of your children for the year 2021. -22 school year.

The legal complaint alleged that USM decided to “punish two model students in retaliation against their parents for raising valid concerns about USM’s treatment of its students of color and other underrepresented stakeholders at the school.”

Robinson’s parents said they began having problems with the school curriculum during the COVID-19 pandemic, when their children were learning virtually at home. They said some classroom tasks were offensive to people of color, Indigenous peoples and other underrepresented students, and in response, they raised their concerns with the school administration.

Parents alleged that the school promoted its commitment to diversity but failed to take steps to protect students of color from repeated instances of racism directed toward them by white students.

“We listened to several people and realized that our situation was not unique and that it was a pattern of behavior,” Craig Robinson said in a 2022 interview with the Journal Sentinel. “And once we heard that, we felt a responsibility to do something else because we would feel really bad if we just packed up and left.”

The school said communications from Robinson’s parents were the problem

In a pretrial report, USM attorneys wrote that Kelly Robinson “decided that she did not like the high school curriculum” and “neither respected nor trusted high school teachers and administrators.”

The school told Kelly Robinson that she had had “disrespectful and deflating” communications with the school, court documents show.

Over 170 days of the 2020-21 school year, USM attorneys say Kelly Robinson sent the school 135 emails and 350 pages of complaints. As a result, the school spent “hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars,” according to the pretrial report.

“Ultimately, Mr. Hancock decided that it was not in the school’s best interest to continue to devote resources to the Robinsons. USM’s relationship with them was clearly irreparably broken. It was time to move on,” the school’s attorneys wrote.

Further: Michelle Obama’s brother and wife sue University of Milwaukee, alleging racial bias

Cleo Krejci covers K-12 education and workforce development as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci. To learn more about Report for America, visit jsonline.com/rfa.

This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Michelle Obama’s Brother and His Wife Settle Lawsuit Against School