CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Staff at a Wyoming junior high school repeatedly used “derogatory and/or insensitive language” and students made racist, homophobic and otherwise derogatory comments toward peers leading up to a homophobic and racist incident, an investigation found.
Some staff said they feared retaliation if they reported discriminatory bullying at McCormick Junior High School in Cheyenne, according to a report on the investigation obtained through a lawsuit filed by media outlets including the Wyoming Tribune Eagle and The Associated Press and an advocacy group.
The investigation resulted from anti-gay flyers with a racist statement that a student posted at the school in March 2019. In the aftermath, school officials suspended the student, the principal resigned and the Cheyenne-area school district took steps to make its policies and culture more inclusive for minority and LGBTQ students and those with disabilities.
School district officials spoke with 29 individual staff members, 17 students, three parents and one representative from LGBTQ advocacy group Wyoming Equality for the investigation, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported.
The investigators couldn’t confirm some claims, including that a teacher forbade students of the same sex from holding hands and that in addition to the student posting the flyers on walls, students handed out the flyers to other students.
However, some students used “intermittent ... hate speech such as ‘n-----’, ‘f-g,’ etc.” prior to the flyer incident, the report stated.
Some school employees, meanwhile, failed to use a student’s desired pronouns or used the phrase “your kind” when speaking to an African-American student, the report said.
The district updated its conduct policy earlier this year to include the use of hate speech as grounds for discipline. It hired a diversity facilitator to address future discrimination issues. The school district also held public meetings to discuss student diversity and inclusion.
Four of 20 staff members interviewed claimed they feared retaliation if they reported discriminatory bullying. One staff member told investigators that the “administration is difficult to work with,” according to the report.
“They are always in a position of uncertainty, not always truthful, staff get blamed while administration takes the glory, writing referrals are frowned upon,” the report continued, adding that special education staff “has it worse than others.”
The 15-page report partly substantiated that claim, finding: “There is limited use of a district prescribed process for reporting, documenting and resolving behavioral referrals and reports of bullying, harassment and intimidation.”
An anti-bullying program used by the district was “implemented with limited fidelity and commitment by some staff,” the report said.
The school district refused to provide the report upon completion, prompting the lawsuit. Besides AP, the plaintiffs included Wyoming Tribune Eagle parent company APG Media of the Rockies, LLC; Gray Television, which owns KGWN-TV; Townsquare Media, which owns radio station KGAB; and the Wyoming Liberty Group, a right-leaning group whose causes include government transparency.
“We believe we made the correct decision to at least try to hold the report and keep it confidential. We will continue to keep as much of those investigations and reports as confidential as we can,” Superintendent Boyd Brown said Tuesday.
Laramie County District Judge Peter Froelicher released the vast majority of the report, redacting primarily names and other personal identifying information.
The report will now enable people to draw their own conclusions, said Bruce Moats, an attorney for the media outlets.
“I don’t think it will answer any debates, but I do think there is a lot of information (in the report) that will at least help people make up their minds about what went on there,” Moats said.