Editor’s note: This story includes graphic, racist and homophobic language.

A lawsuit was filed Thursday against Pueblo School District 60 and an elementary school principal over years of bullying and racial harassment of a 12-year-old girl.

The bullying got so bad that the stress sent her to the hospital for emergency stomach surgery and left her years behind in reading and math. This was despite repeated requests from his mother, Salina Cummings, to the school and district to stop the verbal and physical abuse by other students.

He lawsuit alleges racial discrimination based on Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin.

It also alleges sex discrimination based on Title IX and includes a third equal protection claim alleging that the racial hostility experienced by Jaleigha’Nisa, who is Black and Mexican, was so severe and pervasive that it deprived her of equal educational opportunities.

“They told me to go back to Africa and eat chicken off the ground and called me the N-word, and they also threatened to hang me and shoot me in my sleep,” Jaleigha’Nisa said quietly.

She doesn’t like to talk about the time she was enrolled at Columbian Elementary School.

Shanna Lewis/KRCC

The lawsuit alleges that Pueblo 60 showed “deliberate indifference” toward Jaleigha’Nisa’s racist abuse and harassment by failing to adequately investigate, discipline her, and take corrective action to protect her. He describes the behavior of Colombian director Jimmie Pool as shocking.

“Defendants must be held accountable so that no other students in the school district have to suffer in the same way,” the lawsuit says.

Pueblo School District 60 has not yet reviewed the lawsuit.

The district has policies on nondiscrimination, harassment and bullying, which require schools to conduct investigations and promptly resolve complaints. Under federal law, schools must protect students from racial and sexual discrimination.

theLawsuit filed against Pueblo School District 60 alleges ongoing harassment

Jaleigha’Nisa transferred to Columbian Elementary in fourth grade, after being bullied by her peers at three other schools. At one of those schools a student threatened to stab and kill her.

Within a few weeks at Columbian, which last year had nine black students out of the school’s 333, classmates were hurling racial slurs at him in person and on social media. The students threatened to stab and kill Jaleigha’Nisa and burn her while she slept. They beat her.

They called her a “dyke,” “N—” and “porch monkey” and slapped her, according to the lawsuit. The school once issued a “no contact contract” between students when Jaleigha’Nisa defended herself when a student threatened to hurt Jaleigha’Nisa’s younger sister.

Cummings, Jaleigha’Nisa’s mother, went to the school repeatedly to report the incidents to school officials and school board members. She said Principal Pool would downplay the incidents or promise to talk to the children tormenting Jaleigha’Nisa.

Courtesy of Salina Cummings.

“I was there literally every day, every day trying to get Mr. Pool to do something about it,” said Salina Cummings, Jaleigha’Nisa’s mother.

She said there was never mediation and that none of the students involved in harassing her daughter were reprimanded.

Schools forced to investigate

“They have to investigate and respond once they have adequate knowledge of this type of racist and sexist harassment and intimidation that is taking place, which did not happen here,” said attorney Iris Halpern, who also oversees a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination v. Douglas County School District. “The school didn’t even investigate until I got involved.”

Schools do not have to immediately suspend a child, but they must convey to the harassing student and his or her family that further discriminatory behavior will have consequences that will increase if it is not stopped.

But for Jaleigha’Nisa, according to the lawsuit, because there was little or no follow-up in the investigation of the events, the threats and violence increased.

“I was very stressed and very nervous… and I felt unsure of myself,” said Jaleigha’Nisa, who speaks haltingly and in a low voice.

Courtesy of Salina Cummings.

When fifth grade began in 2023-24, racial harassment by at least 11 students continued. They called her racial slurs and threatened to attack Jaleigha’Nisa, shoot her, hang her, and come to her house to hurt her.

Cummings said the school dismissed racial bullying as “roasting,” where people ridicule each other, escalating the cruelty with each verbal or social media jab.

“I don’t know how a school can say, whether you call it a game or not, that students are allowed to escalate racist comments and threats toward each other,” Halpern said. “It’s not a game.”

The district did not respond, according to the lawsuit

Cummings reported the students’ names to school officials and showed screenshots of other students. She requested mediation with other families of problem students but the district denied her requests, according to the lawsuit. She alleged that the school district never participated in a formal investigation of the numerous complaints she and witnesses routinely reported.

Cummings couldn’t understand why the situation fell on deaf ears.

“Why does she, at 11 and 10 years old, have to go through so many things and you let her voice and cries not be heard to the point of physically harming her? Not only that, but it is harming her mentally and is also affecting her education.”

Jaleigha’Nisa, a quiet, introverted child, often burst into tears. Her grades plummeted to all Fs. She didn’t want to go to school. She was anxious and withdrawn. Her self-confidence evaporated. She told her mother that she didn’t want to be black anymore.

“There is a loss of respect for one’s own identity and history, which I know was very important to (Salina Cummings) that her children be proud of their race,” Halpern said.

Research shows that bullying and harassment in children and young people will have lifelong impacts on physical and mental health, ability to earn an income, and ability to build networks and relationships with other children.

“It has a lot of adverse ramifications that last many, many years, some of which may never be recoverable,” Halpern said.

Hospitalized for stress

In October 2023, Jaleigha’Nisa, who was suffering from severe pain and a temperature of 103.5 degrees, had to undergo emergency surgery, which her pediatrician said was due to stress affecting her gastrointestinal tract. The racial harassment and violent threats continued.

When it became clear that the school was not protecting her daughter, Cummings turned to community groups, such as the NAACP and the Pueblo Human Relations Commission, for help. In a meeting with school administrators, Principal Pool said he had spoken with individual students during the school year but felt “it didn’t rise to the level of the same techniques used in conflict resolution.” School administrators insisted they were investigating and disciplining the students.

A doctor recommended that Jaleigha’Nisa be expelled from Columbian due to the stress and trauma she suffered at school that posed a risk to her safety and well-being. In January 2024, following a formal complaint from Cummings, who had secured an attorney, the district conducted an investigation that the lawsuit said downplayed allegations of racial discrimination, cast doubt on Jaleigha’Nisa’s credibility, It implied that Cumming’s complaints were not long-standing and dismissed the seriousness of the racial harassment suffered by Jaleigha’Nisa.

The lawsuit seeks reparation for damages caused by physical, emotional, and economic harm as a result of the discrimination suffered by Jaleigha’Nisa.

Cummings said her daughter is doing better at her new school, but is still far behind in reading and math and has been placed in a special education plan. Jaleigha’Nisa receives therapy twice a week to address serious trauma.

Jaleigha’Nisa said she hopes the lawsuit will provide more protection for other children.

“To other black or brown kids, in case you’re going through something, I want you to know that it’s okay to stand up for yourself and talk about it.”