Black students sue New York school after teacher asks if they are 'pure-bred'

The families of two Black students have sued a New York school district after a teacher was reportedly not disciplined for making racist and humiliating comments about them.

Monique-Gale Messina, a teacher at Eldred Junior Senior High School, is accused of questioning the two students — in the middle of a lesson and in front of their peers — “about their light-colored skin tone and the texture of their hair, and whether each of the infant plaintiffs was a ‘pure-bred’ Black," according to the lawsuit obtained by The Independent.

The students reported Messina to the district, prompting an investigation that found the educator had “engaged in an inappropriate and racially discriminatory conversation that utilized discriminatory vocabulary and statements."

However, the students' parents say that they were then told by Eldred Central School District Superintendent Traci Ferreira that Mssina could not possibly be bigoted because "she ‘ate tacos’” — which could have been a clumsy euphemism for female genitalia implying that she is LGBTQ+, or an attempt to claim she is somehow not racist because she eats Mexican food.

The parents were told “that Messina was not a person of prejudice because, upon information and belief, she ‘ate tacos,’ and ... identified as a member of the gay and lesbian community," according to the suit.

The lawsuit claims that the school did not remove Messina “despite the clear and unequivocal findings” of wrongdoing, nor did it take “any steps to protect [the students] from being subjected to further acts of racial prejudice, discrimination, and unwarranted hate."

Just four percent of the student body at Eldred Junior Senior High is Black, according to state data — an estimated eight out of 230 total students. The suit states that the students have since had to undergo mental health counseling, and their families have relocated to Pennsylvania. They are asking for the financial damages to be determined through the trial.