Vermont school district settles with federal investigators over allegations of racial harassment

MORRISTOWN, Vt. — A Vermont school district’s inadequate response to serious and widespread harassment of Black and biracial students has led to a settlement agreement with the federal government, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday.

The department’s Civil Rights Division and the Vermont U.S. attorney’s office began investigating the Elmore-Morristown Unified Union School District in December 2023 and reviewed records and complaints from the previous three school years. Investigators concluded that students, primarily at the middle school level, faced frequent slurs and racist imagery, including the use of the N-word and displays of confederate flags and Nazi symbols.

“Racial harassment makes students feel unsafe, deprives them of a supportive educational environment and violates the Constitution’s most basic promise of equal protection,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. “We look forward to the district demonstrating to its students that racial bullying and harassment have no place in its schools.”

Superintendent Ryan Heraty said Wednesday those comments don’t reflect the district’s current reality given that there has been a dramatic decrease in such incidents.

“When students returned from the pandemic, we saw a significant increase in behavior at the middle level, which was deeply concerning,” he said in an email. “In response, we have taken many intentional actions to address this behavior, which the DOJ recognized in its review.”

In a letter to parents and other community members Tuesday, Heraty said the district stands firmly against any acts of racism and responds immediately to reported incidents. In the current academic year, there have been no reported incidents of race-based harassment at the district’s elementary school and a “very limited” number at the middle and high schools, he said.

The Justice Department said the district cooperated fully with the investigation and has already implemented some improvements, including adopting a central reporting system to track incidents. The district also agreed to revise anti-harassment policies and procedures, hold listening sessions with student groups and conduct formal training and education programs for students and staff.