U.S. Attorney Investigating Alleged Boston Latin Civil Rights Violations

The alleged civil rights violations at Boston Latin School will be investigated by U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz.

“We will conduct a thorough investigation into the recent complaints about racism at BLS and will go where the facts lead us,” Ortiz said in a statement. “Once our investigation is complete, we will share our findings at the appropriate time.”

Boston Latin has been in the news since the Boston Globe reported last Wednesday that the school mishandled the case of a girl who was allegedly threatened with lynching and racial slurs.

Eight civil rights organizations and community members, including the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Boston Branch of the NAACP and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, submitted a complaint to the Ortiz’s office that raised concerns about racial issues at the school, according to the statement.

The statement said Ortiz’s office can investigate under the title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex and religion in public schools and colleges.

A 15-year-old girl at BLS told her parents that a boy in her Spanish class held an electric cord and said, “I should lynch you with this.” She also said he called her a racial slur.

The girl’s parents told the Globe that no one at the school had told them what happened after their daughter reported it.

The school has acknowledged mishandling the incident, the Globe reported.

“It’s not just the fact that he said it and threatened her life, but it is the inaction of the people in power,” Lori Britton, the girl’s mother, told the Globe.

Photo courtesy of WHDH, 7-News