The judge presiding over the case of racial discrimination brought against the Ithaca City School District by Amelia Kearney has recommended the district pay $1 million in damages to Kearney and her daughter.

The hearing came two years after Kearney's then 12-year-old daughter, Epiphany, was allegedly spit on, hit and threatened with violence and racial epithets while riding the bus to Ithaca Middle School. Kearney alleged that within a five-month period the school district did not protect her 14-year-old daughter, Epiphany, from repeated racial harassment during the 2005–06 academic year at DeWitt Middle School.

Administrative Law Judge Christine Marbach Kellett of the New York State Division of Human Rights said that after hearing the evidence it was undisputable that the district had failed to protect Kearney's daughter.

"Her daughter was the victim of horrendous, repeated, racially motivated harassment by other students in school," Kellett wrote in her recommendation. "[The Ithaca City School District] permitted such discriminatory conduct by failing to take appropriate or meaningful actions to stop these racially motivated attacks despite the opportunity and authority to do so."

When the local chapter of the Human Rights Commission became involved in the case in October, the school board appealed. The board said involvement of Tompkins County Human Rights Commission would force the school to break federal student privacy laws.

The appeal sparked several protests and community response asking that the decision be reversed and for Superintendent Judith Pastel to step down.

At their Oct. 23 meeting, the Ithaca City School District Board of Education voted unanimously to rescind the appeal that questioned the Human Rights Commission's involvement in the case of Amelia Kearney v. Ithaca City School District. If the appeal had been successful, it would have set precedent in New York state that children could not be protected in education under human rights laws, said Shawn Martel-Moore, director of the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission.


In her decision, Kellett recommended the district be ordered to hold mandatory anti-discrimination training programs and revise its discipline code so it can deal with cases of discrimination more effectively.

The recommendation will not be finalized until it is approved by the Commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights. However, the division is currently without a commissioner since Kumiki Gibson resigned from the post last week, according to a statement from Governor David Paterson's office.

Kellett also wrote that the district's appeal of human rights jurisdiction over the case because of student privacy concerns was invalid.

"This case is really about the failure of the adults responsible for the students in their school to stand up to and stop conduct they knew was wrong," she wrote. "At each opportunity the adults made the wrong choice: they protected the perpetrator and thus permitted the repeated discriminatory conduct to be inflicted on the complainant's child. This is a gross abuse of their authority, their discretion, and an abdication of their responsibilities to [Kearney's daughter], to complainant and the school population at large."

The district has until May 2 to appeal the judge's recommendation.

Kearney herself heard about the decision early this morning. She was "ecstatic" when she when her lawyer told her the news.

"It feels great," she said. "I don't know how to describe it."

Kearney said the district should not appeal the recommendation, and should instead take this opportunity to move on. She said when she called her daughter, who was in school, to tell her the news, she started "screaming" for joy.

"They admitted that they were wrong, and they need to publicly announce that they made several mistakes, and they need to basically overhaul their whole situation," she said. "They need to take heed to that."

Joyce Muchan, chair of the human rights commission, who has been an advocate for Kearney throughout the ordeal, said the decision reflected well on the justice system and the community activists that raised awareness of the issue.

"I think it's a victory for the community, for anyone who fights for social justice, and for the youth of our community, who were very prominent in obtaining justice in this case," Muchan said. "I'm grateful that the legal system is starting to realize the injustice that has permeated the community for so long, and has taken responsibility to start to eradicate it."

District Superintendent Judith Pastel was unavailable for comment today, her secretary said.

Check this week's Ithacan for more information about the case and reactions from the community.

News Editor Kathy Laluk contributed to this story.