Civil Rights Attorney, Joel H. Siegal, a member of the Louis D. Brandeis Center’s Legal Advisory Board, reports a major Title Six victory brought on behalf of a 14 year old African-American student against St. Charles Borromeo School, a private elementary school operated by the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

In the case, Mugisha M. v. St. Charles Borromeo School and the Archdiocese of San Francisco (San Francisco Superior CGC-11-516-819), Joel H. Siegal and his law partner Richard L. Richardson who represented the student, presented facts that between the third and sixth grade, Mugisha was subjected to vile and offensive racial bullying, name calling, and taunting by several classmates.  The school is located in the Mission District of San Francisco, and Mugisha was just one of three black students at the school.  The evidence established that during the three years, Mugisha’s mother made numerous complaints to the school administrators and officials, yet no effective plan to have the racial bullying cease was ever put into play.  The bullying and taunting amplified to the place in the sixth grade, when several students participated in cutting a part of Mugisha’s dreadlocks, and then throwing him in a recycling bin.

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