A lawsuit filed by a Black mother who alleges her son was wrongfully denied re-enrollment at a Cerritos Christian school because she spoke out about racially insensitive comments by other pupils contains “constitutionally impermissible allegations” that should be stricken, a school attorney says in new court papers.
The boy is identified only as D.W. in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed July 14 against Valley Christian Schools on his behalf by his mother. The lawsuit alleges civil rights violations, negligence, negligent hiring, supervision and retention, breach of contract and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
But in court papers filed Monday with Judge Peter A. Hernandez, VCS attorney Sarah Risso contends that the suit makes “constitutionally impermissible allegations” and asks that portions of it be stricken.
Among other things, the plaintiff currently has no grounds to seek punitive damages against a religious institution because permission was not obtained from the court along with a showing of clear and convincing evidence, according to Risso’s court papers. The suit seeks punitive damages under the intentional infliction of emotional distress claim.
“Plaintiff has neither sought nor obtained such leave,” according to Risso’s court papers, which also state that the law seeks to safeguard religious institutions from the reputational and financial burdens of unsubstantiated punitive-damages claims.
The school’s status as a religious institution also is a reason it cannot be sued under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which only pertains to business establishments, according to Risso’s court papers, which further argue that the negligent infliction of emotional distress allegation is “duplicative and improper.”
A hearing on the VCS motion to strike is scheduled Nov. 24.
According to the suit, beginning in 2021, when D.W. was in elementary school, and continuing through the 2025 academic year — after which he was allegedly unlawfully denied re-enrollment for the eighth grade — the plaintiff was subjected to a “pervasive and escalating pattern of bullying, harassment, discrimination and retaliation.”
The alleged misconduct was inflicted on him not only by students, but also by VCS employees who “either committed or condoned the unlawful conduct” or were indifferent to it, the suit contends.
In stark contrast to its stated mission of upholding such Christian values as inclusion, love and respect, the private religious school has failed to honor those principles, the suit states.
White classmates repeatedly called D.W. the “N” word as well as “monkey” and the frequency intensified due to the lack of the administration’s aggressiveness in addressing the problem, the suit alleges.
D.W. also was often called a “snitch” by students angry with him for reporting the alleged racial harassment and one pupil told him, “I know you live in the hood because you’re Black,” the suit states.
D.W.’s mother did not find out about the racial name-calling from the administration, but instead from another parent, the suit further states. Rather than support D.W. in a time of crisis, the administration at the Artesia Boulevard school told the boy to keep quiet about his experiences, the suit alleges.
The suit further contends that the administration used D.W.’s future enrollment as leverage in order to discourage his mother from speaking out about her son’s racial issues, the suit states.
Ultimately, however, VCS denied D.W. re-enrollment for the following academic year, in what the suit contends is “clear retaliation for his and his mother’s repeated efforts to hold defendants accountable for its ongoing discriminatory and unlawful conduct.”