At the prestigious Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, students allegedly downloaded a phone app that made whipping sounds and played them when Black students walked past, according to a lawsuit filed against the school in Los Angeles County Superior Court this week.
Students at a private school held a mock slave auction among themselves in the cafeteria, openly debating how much Black students would be worth if they were sold and asking them about their physical ability to estimate the price, according to the lawsuit.
Some allegedly dangled fried chicken above the boy’s head, saying, “I know you’re like this,” the suit said. And some students threatened to kill him on a certain date and time, according to the lawsuit.
The student, who is a minor, is named John Doe in court documents. The family says the school was “negligent and careless by allowing students to harass, humiliate, and harass the plaintiff with impunity” and is seeking unspecified damages, according to the lawsuit. The family also said the school violated the California Unruh Civil Rights Act by allowing the discrimination to persist and not stop it.
Principal Rob Black and several administrators did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The plaintiff is now a senior. In an interview with The Times alongside his mother and attorney, he said he wanted to finish his education at Oaks Christian — a fourth- through 12th-grade campus known for its athletics and faith-based education. The campus promotes its Christian mission on its website: “To dedicate ourselves to Christ … while growing in knowledge and wisdom through the grace of God.”
The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiff has been the target of bullying and racial harassment for years. In an interview, he said the first incident occurred during an eighth-grade field trip to the Slave Memorial in Mount Vernon when he said some students told him “to join the cemetery.”
“I feel isolated,” he said. “I feel like why me? Why do they feel the need to say that? I didn’t do anything to them.”
To make ends meet at school, he would wait for empty corridors, and he felt unsafe in common areas, often choosing to eat lunch in class to avoid being disturbed, the lawsuit said.
Despite being aware of the alleged racial harassment, Oaks Christian administration failed to take adequate action to solve the problem, according to the lawsuit. In one instance, a school administrator pulled him before a U.S. history class covering slavery that day and warned him to be prepared for inappropriate comments from some “comedians” in the class and advised him to “get ready,” according to the lawsuit. .
The lawsuit does not include any witnesses or documentation to support the plaintiff’s claims. Attorneys said that information will emerge during the legal discovery process.
The voice-whipping app has become known among students and is a tool of racial harassment used to humiliate and demean black students during the 2022-2023 school year, according to the lawsuit.
“Because this intolerant behavior went unchecked, it created a toxic atmosphere at Oaks Christian School, where racism was normalized, and students felt they could see how much they could terrorize the plaintiff and other black students,” the lawsuit said.
With high school fees of about $42,000 a year, the college prep day and boarding school attracts students from affluent families and has a long list of celebrity alumni including the children of Joe Montana, Will Smith and Wayne Gretzky.
Oaks Christian opened in 2000 with state-of-the-art facilities, including an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a modern football stadium and a cafe serving gourmet food. Over the years, it has grown to more than 1,600 students attending the school’s 18-acre campus, according to its website. African American students will comprise 8% of the student body in 2022, according to data provided by schools to education research site Niche.
The lawsuit follows allegations of racism on campus that surfaced publicly during the George Floyd protests in 2020.
That summer, a petition titled “Black Oaks Christian Alumni and Allies Against Racism” sent online and signed by more than 8,000 people. The comment section contains an account of alleged discrimination. Someone wrote: “I don’t want my alma mater to destroy Black and Brown people like me.”
At the same time in 2020, the Instagram account “Oaks Christian Stories” was created and acquired dozens of posts details of allegations of racism and sexism.
Oaks Christian wasn’t the only one that year to face scrutiny for its treatment of black students and other students of color. Another prominent private school in the region is facing a wave of criticism online as personal stories emerge from students and alumni describing encounters with racism and bias. Administrators at the school took the account seriously, holding town halls and introducing new measures such as anti-bias training for faculty.
Oaks Christian Principal Rob Black pledged that year to strengthen the school’s anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies. He said he wanted to “admit that we were wrong and that we didn’t understand many of the problems that Black students at Oaks Christian School face,” according to a statement sent to parents.
“Racism is evil and has no place at Oaks Christian School. We must be more than non-racist – we must be actively anti-racist,” he said in a June 2020 email. “A racist act against one black student is wrong against every black student, and can’t stand.”
Based on what students say they experienced, anti-racist promises and policies do not exist.
For years, he said, he felt isolated, believing that no one could help him, affecting his ability to focus on his studies. He has been in therapy to deal with the emotional damage, his mother said.
“He was always friendly and outgoing, but he started to become more introverted,” his mother said. “He looks sad and won’t talk.”
When she found out about the situation in middle school, her mother said she wanted to transfer her to another school.
“I blame myself. How did I miss this? How come no one from the school told her what happened to her? I was sent to a Christian school for a reason, you know? And I’m shocked and shocked and hurt because the school is sick of him,” he said.
By filing the lawsuit, the student said he knew there would be retribution.
“I’m bracing for it to happen – I’ll have to go through so no one else,” he said. “There has to be a change.”
