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USA Herald spoke with Brittany Black, then Associate Consultant for Elanco, who approached us with her family's story. For privacy reasons, Black's son is referred to only as "A."

An Indiana mom says she was forced to move her son from Hamilton Southeastern School District (HSE), one of the top-rated school districts in the state, to one of the worst-rated, to protect him from escalating incidents of bullying including an incident that resulted in a concussion and 11 weeks of "cognitive rest."

During the beginning of A's second-grade year in HSE, another child became angry during a soccer game and lashed out at A, head-butted, and tripped him. A hit his head on the hard playground surface.

He complained of a "hot neck" to the teacher on playground duty, who sent him to the nurse. Black says the nurse gave A an ice pack for his neck and put him on the bus home instead of investigating the matter further.

When A arrived home, he collapsed shortly after getting off the bus. Black described him as incoherent and she immediately took him to the Emergency Room where he was diagnosed with a concussion. She says A told her he was tripped and hit his head.

Black says that when she called the school to tell them what happened, she was informed that A didn't tell the nurse he hit his head. That in the future, he needs to tell them that he has a head injury and needs concussion testing. He was in second grade at the time.

"He's a child," said Black, "I wouldn't know to say that." She says the nurse told her she was trained in concussion protocols but still failed to recognize concussion symptoms.

This moment was the culmination of two years of escalated incidents of bullying that the school failed to properly address. In addition to the physical injuries, A also experienced depression and underwent therapy, says Black.

Before HSE, A was a child who looked forward to school. After HSE, he would cry on school days, telling his mom that he "didn't want to be here anymore." And now, nearly two years later, Black feels her son was a victim of discrimination on the part of the nearly all-white staff who failed to protect him.

It's important to note that Black and her son are African Americans in a predominantly white area and that Indiana still has an overt KKK presence. In fact, in 2016, KKK recruiters were knocking on doors passing around fliers in Black's neighborhood.

"I worked in Greenfield and I experienced these things. I worked where someone had hung a noose on a tree. These things still happen here and Hamilton valley is not that diverse," said Black.

Educational opportunity -- if you're white

"It's been almost two years and I'm still pushing this because I feel like I did this to my son. I put him in this school, and I knew there would be some microaggressions, and he might hear some vulgar talk, but I felt like, for both my kids, they would be able to get through it," said Black. "And the goal was them graduating from Hamilton County, they would be able to go to any college and they would have a much easier path than I did."

But Black didn't initially think her son was a victim of racism. She thought this was just standard schoolyard bullying as the new kid found his place among his classmates. And even now, she says the kids that bullied her son were not the problem -- the teachers and administrators who failed to protect him were.

Black, then Associate Consultant for Elanco, says she moved her family into the Hamilton Southeastern School District in Fishers, Indiana in 2017 because she wants to provide her children with educational opportunities that would allow them to pursue college educations at prestigious institutions.

HSE is a College Success Award Winner, which recognizes schools that "do an exemplary job getting students to enroll in and stick with college, including those that beat the odds by better serving low-income students." HSE has a rating of 9/10 and ranked No. 11 in Indiana.

Lawrence, the school where A now attends, ranked No. 208 in Indiana.  Black says the teachers there don't even talk about college because they don't expect their students to attend. Lawrence is a majority-black school.

From 2017 to 2019, A attended Fisher's elementary during his first and second grades. A was the only African American kid in his class.

Black says she and her son initially really liked his first-grade teacher, Angelicka Thompson. It wasn't until A came home with stories about playground incidents with other students that she started to become concerned.

The difference between "tattling" and telling when there's a problem

Black says she reached out to Thompson (through e-mails) for solutions. She wanted to approach the issues sensitively because she didn't want to say or do the wrong thing and negatively affect her son's education. She was given the brush-off. During a parent-teacher conference, she brought it up again.

"She [Angelicka Thompson] would tell me, well, [A] needs to understand the difference between 'tattling' and telling when there's an actual problem," said Black. "The whole dynamic between me and her took a left. She would send me emails every week with the things that were happening to [A] ... what she failed to mention in the emails, is it was the same kid every time."

The emails would contain examples of when A was "tattling," suggesting that Black needed to teach him to ignore certain things like name-calling -- to let it roll off his back.

Black says that while the incidents continued between her son and the other child, it was her son's grades that were suffering, especially her son's behavior chart. At that time, behavior charts were used as a weekly check-in for students.

According to Black, incidents involving her son and the other child would result in poor behavior chart feedback for her son, labeling A's behavior as "disruptive," but Black was never given any indication that the other child's behavior was being addressed.

There were six incidents between Black's son and the other child that year, prompting Black to request that the two children not be placed in the same class the following year.

Black says that even at that time, following a year of problems, she didn't feel that any of it was racially motivated. Instead, she feels the school mishandled the problems.

"Kids are taught certain things, and if you have a parent that tells you 'this kid looks this way and it's a problem.  Kids don't fully understand it and they pick on what they don't understand," said Black.

She says it should have been a teaching moment about diversity for the teacher. When the 2018-2019 school year started and A again came home complaining of bullying, this time resulting in a cut lip, Black reached out to the new Assistant Principal.

Black says the Assistant Principal was initially on her side, agreeing that this should be a teaching moment on diversity for a majority-white school. Her story changed the following day after talking to A's second-grade teacher, Peggy Evans.

"She was a new principal. She's a woman, and she's a minority, I think there was pressure not to make waves," said Black.

Racism and microaggressions at HSE not new

Hamilton Southeastern School District is no stranger to accusations of racism and racial microaggressions. Earlier this year, the school district received bad press over a social media group created by Hamilton students called BlackatHSE.

Students and others use the page to post anonymously about their experiences with racism in the school district. It currently has over 2,700 followers. The social media page garnered news attention. In July, nearly a month later, the district released a statement on racism and addressed BlackatHSE directly.

"Students' voice is a powerful thing, and we applaud our students who will not tolerate discrimination of any sort in our schools and are using the platform to advocate for change."

The district also hired Dr. Erica Buchanan-Rivera as Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer in 2017, three years before the creation of the social media page.

Black says she never reached out to Buchanan-Rivera, again because at the time she didn't feel this was a racially motivated issue on the part of the school staff. In hindsight though, she likened Buchanan-Rivera's hiring to the "black friend" trope. Given her experience, she feels that the position was a PR stunt more than a move to make real change.

Buchanan-Rivera's hiring happened during the time A was at HSE. And no matter how many phone calls Black made, no matter how many emails she sent, no matter how many times she voiced her concerns, she was brushed off. Even by the school principal.

"The principal would never talk to me, either year. He would always refer me to the assistant principal," says Black. She had a similar experience with her daughter's teachers who would only communicate with her through the principal.

Black began approaching the issues quietly, discreetly asking for changes. But near the end, she was demanding solutions. When the Assistant Principal told her that there was nothing further to be done, Black had had enough.

"I talked to lawyers the day after and was told I didn't have a case. My only choice after that was to take him out of the school," said Black, "We finished out the semester and because he was on cognitive rest, he spent the rest of the semester in the nurse's office — that's when the incidents stopped."

Staying invisible

"A is so afraid of getting in trouble -- and it helps him and harms him," said Black. "He leads a very cautious life because he's super sensitive."

At the school he's at now, kids are fighting other kids in the hallways, fighting teachers, and cussing. There's so much attention on the other kids that A can sit in the back and disappear, says Black. But while he's more comfortable in his new school, he doesn't have the same opportunities he would have at HSE.

"At Lawrence, when I talk about college with the teachers, they're like 'Why are you talking about college? You don't even know if your kid's gonna graduate,'" says Black.

To make up for disparity between the schools, Black says she and her husband are considering various extracurricular programs for the kids. Unfortunately, most of their options are on hold for the moment because of the pandemic.

But Black and her family are still coming to terms with the things her son experienced while enrolled in HSE. She feels guilty for daring to place her children in a top school district. For not realizing the extent of the attacks A would experience. And at this point, she feels she has no recourse.

"I put him through that, through 6, 7 times getting injured, getting a concussion, and it's all for nothing. I feel like I failed him there. And I can make up for it by making sure someone is held accountable," said Black. "I just wanted someone to acknowledge it. You didn't feel like he was worthy of protection, you didn't feel like he was worthy of being there."

Hamilton Southeastern School District did not return requests for comment.

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