The Windham Central Supervisory Union and Leland and Grey Middle School have agreed to pay two siblings $250,000 to settle a pair of 2024 lawsuits alleging student-on-student harassment that the school did not adequately address. The Vermont Human Rights Commission, which brought the suits on t he students’ behalf, characterized the agreement as the largest monetary settlement in its history; the oversight body was created by the legislature in 1987 to uphold civil and human rights in housing, state government and schools through investigation and litigation. Announced in a press release on Thursday, the settlement is still contingent on final court approval. It also calls for the supervisory union to adopt a harassment prevention training program for educators that would be implemented over the next three years. The program will be developed by the Human Rights Commission and the Windham County NAACP and is expected to be available to all Vermont schools. Windham Central must also revise its reporting system for harassment complaints so that all complaints are tracked electronically and can be shared between schools. In the press release, Human Rights Commission executive director and general counsel Big Hartman said that the settlement is “a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to ensure that every student can learn and thrive in a safe and inclusive environment.” Meanwhile, Windham Central superintendent Bob Thibault wrote in an email to Seven Days that the supervisory union “is not interested in protracted litigation with families” and is “pleased to resolve the lawsuit on favorable terms given that it covers two students with two separate claims.” “The school is constantly working to improve and welcomes the additional training from [the Human Rights Commission] to supplement our own rigorous training on the prevention of harassment,” Thibault wrote, noting that entering into the settlement “is not an admission of wrongdoing in this case.” The settlement stems from two separate lawsuits the commission filed in 2024 against the supervisory union and middle school on behalf of a brother and sister. The suits describe the students as “an African-American male who has brown skin” and “an African-American female who has brown skin and who is attracted emotionally, romantically, and/or sexually to females” and notes their parents are white. The suit filed on behalf of the male student states that between 2019 and 2022, while he attended Leland and Grey and was the only African-American student in his grade, he was subjected to “continuing unwelcome conduct, including verbal, written, visual and physical conduct” based on his and his family’s “race and color.” That included racial slurs, threats, graffiti and taunts, according to the suit. As a result of the harassment, the student became “depressed and self-isolating” and lost interest in sports and socializing with others, the lawsuit says. The student and his parent allegedly documented the harassment, both verbally and in writing, but the district “failed to take prompt and appropriate remedial action.” In 2022, the student transferred to a private school and began mental health treatment, paid for by his parents. The second lawsuit, filed on behalf of the female student, alleges that while attending Leland and Grey between 2020 and 2022, she also faced “unwelcome conduct” related to her “actual and/or perceived sex and/or sexual orientation.” The suit describes one student threatening to beat her up because of her sexual orientation and another calling her a lesbian while taking food off her lunch tray, biting it, then putting it back on her tray. As in her brother’s case, the school allegedly failed to take action to stop the harassment. The female student also transferred to a private school and received mental health treatment. After being filed in Vermont Superior Court in Washington County, the two lawsuits were consolidated. Windham Central’s insurer — the Vermont School Boards Insurance Trust, or VSBIT — will pay the settlement. In an email on Thursday, Hartman said that over the last several years, the commission has noticed “an uptick in race-based discrimination and harassment complaints in Vermont schools.” Out of the commission’s 61 active investigations, 12 relate to school discrimination, Hartman said, and two additional school cases have been accepted for investigation but not yet initiated. The post Students to Receive $250,000 Settlement for School Harassment appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less