As issues of racism persist in Salinas schools, parents consider a civil rights lawsuit.

In 2021, videos and photos of Salinas High School students stomping on and mutilating a Black baby doll circulated in national news. That incident may have faded from the collective memory, but for students in Salinas Union High School District, it’s still there.

Rayanna Pasqual, a Black 13-year-old, says classmates at Harden Middle School regularly call her a monkey or the N-word. “When I say I don’t feel comfortable hearing that, then they just go off on me or make it seem like I’m the one in the wrong,” she says.

Pasqual says she has reported several incidents, but the racist slurs haven’t stopped. “I feel like there’s not enough consequences for them,” she adds.

The constant racist name-calling and bullying have affected her. She feels unsafe and disrespected on campus. “Sometimes I don’t like to go to school because I have to constantly hear things [that are] rude to my culture,” the seventh-grader says. She adds that some of her Black friends report similar circumstances on other campuses. “This happens [at] most of the schools out here. There’s always racism,” Pasqual says.

Chastidy Frymire says her 14-year-old son, a top-grade student, has experienced bullying and targeting at school for being Black. Frymire moved her son from Harden to Washington Middle School, but she says the attacks and harassment continue, despite her reports to the administration and board of trustees.

“I’ve been contacting people to help me with my child… he’s just trying to survive. He’s just trying to make it,” Frymire says. “He shouldn’t have to go to school and have to watch his back.”

After a fight during the 2023-24 school year that just ended at Washington Middle, her son ended up with a fractured nose, a hematoma under his left eye and ruptured blood vessels.

On April 23, Artis Smith, a senior pastor at New Home Missionary Baptist Church in Salinas, spoke to the SUHSD board highlighting the persistent issue of racism. “We need to figure out what we need to do to make sure our Black kids feel safe,” he said.

Lyndon Tarver, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, says once issues are out of the spotlight, “They go back to their old ways.”

Superintendent Dan Burns writes via email, “The Salinas Union High School District has committed to establishing a more inclusive, tolerant and anti-racist school climate with a variety of preliminary efforts to reflect, build awareness and collaboratively design best practices to support our students.”

District efforts include hiring two district-wide Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (JEDI) managers to develop opportunities and research and address racist incidents on campus. It also partnered with organizations including the National Compadres Network and School Yard Rap to promote diversity, inclusion and conflict resolution. In addition, it established an Anti-Racist Coalition, a group of staff, teachers and parents, to create a plan.

Tarver says the district needs to do more than check the box for providing diversity training, and instead undertake transformational change.

Smith says parents are considering filing a class-action civil rights lawsuit against SUHSD: “We want our children to be safe.”