Ithaca City School District: "We could have done more"

We could have done more to shield student, educator says
Testimony concludes in Kearney's case against ICSD

By Topher Sanders
Journal Staff

ITHACA — More could have been done to protect Amelia Kearney's daughter from racial harassment during the 2005-06 school year, current and former Ithaca City School District officials said on Thursday.

The testimony came during the second and final day of a New York State Division of Human Rights hearing in the case of Kearney vs. Ithaca City School District. There was more than 10 hours of testimony Thursday.

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The first to testify that more could have been done to shield Kearney's daughter from the harassment was Jamie Thomas, who was the associate principal of DeWitt Middle School during the 2005-06 school year and who called the bus Kearney's daughter rode that year a “hell hole.”

The day after Kearney's daughter was spit on and punched by two different DeWitt students, the school acted quickly and suspended the students, Thomas said.

But both of the boys rode the bus home with Kearney's daughter the day of their suspensions where they again harassed her with mention of a “gun with (her) name on it.”

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