KATHLEEN, Ga. — The Houston County School District agreed to new guidelines to resolve a civil rights complaint filed by two families in 2020.
The moms of two former Veterans High School cheerleaders say a coach associated with the school used the 'N-word' at a practice to address their daughters.
According to the resolution agreement, the district must publish an anti-harassment statement on its website and all publications associated with Veterans High School. Also, the district must provide anti-harassment training for staff and students.
Antwishia Thomas and Cortese Walker said they wish the school district took accountability for what happened to their daughters back in 2020.
"I just really feel like putting on paper just looks good for them,” Thomas said. “It's not going to do anything if you're not going to actually implement it and it's going to be effective for all kids across the board as well as their families."
They said their daughters never received an apology from the coach, and the district refused to admit the situation ever happened.
"They believe in protecting their own in terms of staff and administrators,” Walker said. “It's not about protecting the kids. The kids were villainized, and they watched it happen. They saw it happening and they were quiet about it."
Both Walker and Thomas say they hope the agreement changes the way Houston County deals with parents if something like their daughters' case happens again.
"No parents should feel like, ‘Oh, I'm just going to keep this incident to myself’ because I don't want them to treat my child a different kind of way because they reported that something wrong was done to them,” Thomas said. “Like, I just feel like that's just, that's unacceptable."
According to the agreement, the first action is due by Sept. 30.
Thomas and Walker said sometimes they regretted speaking up because of the backlash their daughters received from their coaches and peers at the time. Walker said an apology from the coach and administration at the time would have made the situation better.
"We didn't ask for money. We didn't ask for a position on the team where they had to do certain things. We didn't ask for anything,” Walker said. “When they said, 'what do you want?' Accountability, that's it. Because I needed our girls to know that they didn't do anything wrong. And I want to live the rest of their life in that truth that we didn't do anything wrong."
The Houston County School District sent 13WMAZ a statement:
“While the District cannot comment on employee or student matters, we are committed to making our schools safe and nurturing environments for all students. We reinforce this value by training all staff and students on harassment and bullying. If a student ever feels they were harassed, we encourage them to speak to a counselor or administrator. Our school district also uses Anonymous Alerts, which is a safe way to report any form of harassment in our schools. We will continue to focus on meeting the social, emotional, and academic needs of our students.”
Walker and Thomas said they're disappointed the district isn't speaking up again to support their students.
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