Former Christen Middle School teacher files federal suit
against LISD & campus administrators;
alleges racial hatred & violation of civil rights

By María Eugenia Guerra

A black middle school teacher, citing violations of his civil rights and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, has filed a federal suit against the Laredo Independent School District, former L. J. Christen Middle School principal Veronica Martinez, former assistant principal Yolanda Perez, and assistant principal of discipline Alfredo Juarez.
According to a suit filed by attorney Murray Malakoff for Amadu M. Kamara, who signed a one-year probationary contract with LISD in August 2000 to teach mathematics to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at Christen, Kamara was the target of a campaign of racial hatred and ridicule by the students, some of his teaching peers, and the Christen administrators.
Kamara, a native of the Republic of Sierra Leone, holds a BA in economics and business administration from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, a Master of Arts in economics from Bowling Green State University, and an MBA from Texas A&M International University.
According to his suit, Kamara was "subjected to an opprobrium of racial slurs" and in particular was allegedly referred to constantly by his students as "el pinche Negro."
Kamara alleges that early in the 2000-2001 academic year he became the target of "false and frivolous accusations of physical and verbal mistreatment of the Hispanic students he taught," a campaign he alleges culminated in a "witch hunt" and in an "egregiously false accusation of physical abuse to students ." The suit states that the allegation of physical abuse was leveled at him by principal Martinez at the behest of Kamara's teaching peers, Martha Flores, Alma Valdez, San Juanita Lopez, Guadalupe Cortinas, and Gerardo Javier Perez.
According to the suit, vice-principal Yolanda Perez, without conducting "a thorough and complete investigation," initiated a report to the Texas Department of Human Services Child Protection Services (CPS) for Kamara's alleged physical abuse of students. The CPS investigation, which ultimately exonerated Kamara by ruling out that any abuse had occurred, documented that Kamara had been called "pinche Negro" by some of his students. The report also made several references to the unruliness of students Kamara taught.
Kamara said in his suit that though vice-principal Perez noted in an October 28, 2000 write-up of Kamara the racial and cultural antagonism between the teacher and the students, neither she nor principal Martinez or assistant principal Juarez undertook constructive measures to bridge the racial gap or to teach students racial tolerance and harmony. He said the Christen administrators chose to ignore the students' racism and sanction their racist behavior by instead writing him up.
Principal Martinez authored a memorandum on November 20, 2000, the same day Kamara was reported to CPS, for failing to "deal considerately and justly with each student" and for failing to resolve problems including discipline according to law and school board policy. In the same write-up, Martinez cited Kamara for exposing his students to "health risks" by allowing the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders to go to a nearby convenience store without administrative authority and for taking his students outdoors without their sweaters or jackets.
Also on November 20, LISD's human resources director received a report authored by assistant principal Juarez that found no credibility to the accusation of sexual abuse leveled at Kamara by one of his students.
Kamara noted that racial slurs against him continued unabated, and unable to withstand the constant barrage of slurs leveled at him since the beginning of the school year, he verbally chastised one of his students on February 23, 2001. Once again, Kamara complained to Christen administrators about that student's constant use of the word "nigger." Assistant principal Perez fired back a memorandum on the same day reprimanding Kamara for being unprofessional and "using bad language" with the student. No action or progressive discipline was undertaken against the student.
On March 4, 2001, Kamara wrote to Perez protesting the written reprimands and complaining once again of the constant use of racial epithets by students and the inaction of the school district and of Juarez and principal Martinez to curtail the demeaning practice.
Sixteen days later Kamara received back a "letter of warning"citing him for failure to use lesson plans. On the same day, principal Martinez recommended the non-renewal of Kamara's teaching contract in the "best interests of the students of this school."
"In all the years that I have been a teacher, I have never had this type of problem at any school. When I was a substitute teacher at Lamar Middle School, students and faculty members were respectful," Kamara said.
"What I find so difficult to understand is that there was no reaction from the Christen administration to the racist comments, only inaction. They would not talk to the students or to the parents of the students. They didn't deny the racism existed, they just wouldn't deal with it," he said incredulously.
"When I went to the assistant principal of curriculum Yolanda Perez about the name-calling, she called in students one by one. I thought she would work to help us all accommodate each other, teacher and students, and to learn tolerance and cultural diversity, but instead she was interviewing them to see what was wrong with me," Kamara alleged.
"The more I complained to administrators about being called 'nigger,' the more accelerated were the administration's efforts against me. The complaining only made it worse. It became clear to me that they sided with the students and not with me. What does that tell you? They are racists, too. What was at stake if they didn't help me? The message was that they were the majority and could do as they pleased," he said.
"I had support from other teachers and from my mentor Mary Jimenez and from our team leader, but the administrators still wouldn't address the racial name-calling by students. By the end of my time there at Christen, all respect in the classroom was gone. The students saw me going to administration for help and they saw administration doing nothing, which gave the students the latitude to do as they pleased and to continue the racial name-calling when I tried to discipline them for being late or for actions that distracted the class. As time went on, even the good students joined in the name-calling. My team leader has a log of all the times I brought problems to their attention," Kamara said.
"The school counselor, Ms. Flores, was the only person on the campus who was concerned about the students calling me 'nigger.' She talked to my students about racial sensitivity and told them that she respected me as a person who was educated and they should, too," Kamara recalled.
"My classroom evaluations by persons other than Principal Martinez were good. Hers of me, however, were poor," he continued, adding, "Principal Martinez may have some communication skills that made her seem very professional, but her decision-making skills regarding me were simply not there." Kamara continued, "The campus had a discipline problem, which was a reflection of Mrs. Martinez' management skills. In my case, they were able to say, 'It's not the unmanageable kids that are a problem, it's Kamara.' Even to the last moment after I had been forced to resign from teaching but was still in effect an employee of the school district until August, there was pettiness and retribution to the Principal's actions. She prohibited the sale to me of some used computer equipment that district employees were allowed to purchase. Very petty," Kamara said.
"This could have been a positive learning experience for all of us on the campus. The children could have learned respect, racial tolerance, and accomodation. We could have all shared the same space and learned in it. Schools are where these changes take place. Instead the students learned that it's okay to keep calling people by racial names. Sadly, America is a name-calling country. Someone has to be superior to somebody. The Christen teachers who stood on the sidelines of this episode, they learned something, too. This behavior was cliquish, clannish," Kamara said.
"We don't agree with the allegations in Mr. Kamara's suit, and we will defend our case in court," said LISD public information officer Marco Alvarado.
Former L. J. Christen principal Veronica Martinez, now an assistant district superintendent, declined comment on the case, except to say, "I'd like to comment, but the case is under investigation and in litigation. Our documentation is in place and I don't feel that there was any discrimination against Mr. Kamara. I have worked with everyone and not had this kind of problem."
"Because it is in litigation, we can't really discuss the facts," said LISD attorney John Kazen, adding, "The district believes the case is groundless and that there is no merit to the allegations by Mr. Kamara. We'll address the facts and the legal issues in federal court, and they will be thoroughly addressed."
"The merits of my client's lawsuit I reserve for the capable hands of the federal judiciary as there are laws that address racial harassment," said attorney Malakoff. "It seems to me that we Laredoans should be thinking about and examining our attitudes on racial harmony and tolerance which we are supposed to practice because we are taught these things at our various places of worship. I think that we forget that the greatness of this Republic of which Laredo is a part rests upon the pillars of racial and cultural diversity -- it is sad that we need to be reminded of this by litigation which brings this to the public eye," Malakoff continued, adding, "The fact that the spectre of racism has reared its ugly head in a culture and people who were themselves the victims of the same thing in the not so distant past means that we have a long way to go."
"I have lived on the other border of this country, in upstate New York, and I did not face this kind of racism," Kamara said. "I've been in this country 25 years. I came here for an education and the better life an education brings. I love this country," Kamara continued. "In this country, this citadel of democracy where you are innocent until you're proven guilty, this principal at L. J. Christen decided me guilty before I was proven innocent. What she did is un-American, really. She judged me summarily," he said.
"I am still dumfounded by this experience. I am out of employment, which doesn't concern me as much as that I want the court to seal my records or to reflect that I had indeed been a good school teacher and that I had conducted myself professionally. I do not want it to reflect the things administrators fabricated when I became vocal about being called a 'nigger' in my own classroom. I'm a career teacher who has taught economics and business finance in college as well as math and world history in high school and middle school," Kamara said. "The allegation of sexual abuse tore me up completely," he said emotionally. "I, Kamara, doing that to a little child? What an accusation," he said of the unfounded charges the Christen administrators leveled at him.
"This experience was an attack on my dignity, on who I really am -- my professionalism, my education, and my humanity. I grew up in Africa, which with the exception of South Africa, was a cultural and racial melting pot. I learned since we were children that in the sight of God, we are equal. A 12-year-old who calls me 'nigger' is parroting behaviors. At 12 years old, I don't think children have learned to hate, but when racism goes unfettered and it is condoned, children learn it is OK to do this. This was institutional racism condoned and promoted by campus adminstrators of the Laredo Independent School District," Kamara said.
On November 29, 2001, Amadu Kamara filed a charge against the Laredo Independent School District with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. On April 23, 2002, he received from the United States Department of Justice a notice of right to institute suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.