controversial Dutch holiday character<\/a> known as a helper to Santa Claus who is depicted with exaggerated, racist physical features \u2014 including large red lips. The character is often portrayed by white actors in blackface.<\/p>\nAccording to an initial claim filed with the district by Hawkins\u2019 attorney in July, one of the mother\u2019s children \u2014 the only Black child in the class \u2014 was singled out to \u201cmodel the costume.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe classroom lesson normalized and reinforced racial stereotypes and caused the Hawkins Children to feel singled out and demeaned on the basis of race, prompting classmates to stare, laugh, and subsequently reference the imagery in teasing comments,\u201d the lawsuit alleges. <\/p>\n
Hawkins alleges in the lawsuit that her children were subjected to bullying and repeated racial harassment by students in the classroom, hallways and playground, and that such incidents escalated after the Christmas lesson.<\/p>\n
Several weeks after the lesson, in January 2025, the lawsuit alleges, one of the children received a note from another student during class that read, \u201cYour skin is as black as your future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Afterward, according to the suit, the school allegedly failed to implement a written response plan and did not separate the children. <\/p>\n
The next month, the suit alleges, one of the children was told by another classmate, \u201cYou should be in a Black African monkey show.\u201d<\/p>\n
The racist comment was overheard by students and reported to school staff, but the lawsuit alleges school officials did little to address it. <\/p>\n
In an incident in March 2025, a playground supervisor heard a student telling one of the children, \u201cYour skin is the color of dog food,\u201d <\/p>\n
The suit alleges the student who made the comment was told to \u201cbe nice\u201d but that there was no documented discipline, parent conference, separating measures or monitoring. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe district has really taken zero accountability for their actions even though there\u2019s a definite pattern of ignoring situations like this,\u201d said Willie W. Williams, an attorney representing Hawkins. <\/p>\n
Williams said his clients reached out to district officials repeatedly, but Redlands Unified has not moved to address their concerns. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe district has not done anything specific to address the incidents or remedy the situation with the family and kids,\u201d Williams said in a brief interview. \u201cEssentially, the district has stonewalled any remedies for the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the incidents, the two children have been diagnosed with PTSD and are undergoing treatment, Williams said. <\/p>\n
Williams declined to share whether the children are still attending schools in the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids have been devastated and are now still emotionally impacted by what\u2019s occurred,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe hope things do get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the incidents, according to the suit, the children began to tell their parents and teachers they were getting stomachaches and anxiety before school, and avoiding recess. <\/p>\n
Hawkins, her husband and supporters spoke out about several of the incidents, including in emails and meetings with school officials. The lawsuit claims that, in letters sent in April, the school district reported investigating the incidents and substantiating the events. <\/p>\n
The parents also spoke out during a March 2025 board meeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cThese are not just words,\u201d Hawkins said during the meeting. \u201cThese are attacks on our children\u2019s dignity and identity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two children at a Redlands elementary school faced racial harassment, discrimination and teasing for months, resulting in them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3409,3413,147226,4579,4456,3410,48,52,51,1846,43471,47,50,49,147228,147227,37318,78794,4574,11469,10530],"class_list":["post-362317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-child","tag-concern","tag-daphne-hawkins","tag-district","tag-incident","tag-kid","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lawsuit","tag-lesson","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-racial-harassment","tag-racist-comment","tag-school-district","tag-school-official","tag-student","tag-suit","tag-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}