‘She Is a Ni—er’: Black Chicago Girl’s Racist Classmates Were So Cruel They Encouraged Her to Harm Herself As She Endured Years of Abuse
The mother of a Black student at a Chicago public magnet school filed a lawsuit against the city’s board of education, alleging that her daughter endured sexual, physical, verbal, and racist abuse from students and teachers over three years, starting when she was in fifth grade. Sher’Ron Hinton, a 31-year-old single mother, says she was initially elated when her daughter and four younger children prevailed in the school lottery process and were enrolled in the high-performing Wildwood IB World Magnet School for students in pre-K through 8th grade in 2022. “Jenny Doe,” as she’s identified in the lawsuit filed in Cook County District Court in July (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star) was then 10 years old, and the only Black student in her classes at the school, where fewer than 4 percent of its 517 students identified as Black, and only 15 percent came from low-income families like hers. Sher'Ron Hinton filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education and school faculty and staff, alleging they failed to protect her daughter from verbal, physical and racial abuse at Wildwood IB Magnet School. (Photo: CBS News Chicago screenshot) Jenny was bullied and racially harassed by Wildwood students from her first day of classes through the spring of 2025, the complaint says, and her teachers and school administrators did little to stop it. In September of 2022, one of the girl’s teachers saw her crying and referred her to the school social worker, Megan Kay. Jenny disclosed to Kay that a classmate had called her a “whore” and said, “I wish you never came to this school,” and “Why do I have to look at your face?” ‘You Look Like a Monkey’: White Florida Teacher Accused of Racism After Singing ‘Birthday Song’ to 6-Year-Old Black Student as Classmates Laugh Two months later, after facing more verbal abuse, Jenny wrote, “I feel like I’m going to die” on a classroom questionnaire, prompting a suicide ideation assessment that deemed her a “moderate risk.” The school failed to inform her mother of the assessment or its outcome until December 2024 – two years later. By then, Jenny had expressed suicidal thoughts at school at least three times. In November, Jenny tearfully reported that a classmate had called her “fat” and “ugly,” while other others told her she was “shaped like a football,” and “looked like an egg” or a “marshmallow.” She also said she was routinely excluded during recess. Wildwood neither disciplined the aggressors for the body-shaming nor shared any of the incident reports with Hinton, the lawsuit says. The following month, in December, Jenny disclosed that a student, L.C., had slapped her and that another girl had touched her “in places didn’t want to be touched,” including rubbing her legs, thighs, arms and buttocks, and threatened to send Jenny “to a butcher” or to punch her if she reported the misconduct. The school notified the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), but its Office of Student Protections (OSP) closed its investigation due to “lack of cooperation” from Wildwood, the complaint states. Kay drafted a safety plan for Jenny that directed the girl not to be grouped or seated near L.C. and restricted bathroom use to one student at a time, but did not share the plan with Hinton. The harassment persisted, including a classmate who struck Jenny in the face during recess and declared, “I’m always trying to kill you,” and told her she “stinks.” When Jenny reported the assault, the recess monitor allegedly rebuked her for “always causing drama.” Another student cyberbullied Jenny with sexually explicit imagery over a weekend in December, and when she returned to school she was again told she “stinks” and is “annoying.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?vXohy8_Ojx2M Hinton told WBEZ she was aware that her daughter was unhappy, but she didn’t know why or how despondent she was. At a meeting with school officials, she says they trivialized Jenny’s reports as routine “friendship issues” and “exaggerations,” causing the girl to leave in tears. When she began therapy at a local children’s hospital on Dec. 20, 2022, Hinton says she was unaware of her daughter’s suicidal ideation history because Wildwood had never informed her of it, as required by CPS policy and state law. As a result, she was unable to advise the medical team of the severity of her daughter’s depression and mental health issues. Over the next two months, the lawsuit says, classmates called Jenny an “ugly, fat b-tch,” “horny ass,” and “pig.” The girl sent a despairing note to Kay stating, “I hate my face and body,” and “I don’t like me.” Hinton first learned of her daughter’s suicidal ideations on March 1, 2023, from Kay and promptly notified Jenny’s therapist. The girl confirmed that her sadness and thoughts about self-harm were due to peer bullying. She also disclosed that despite the safety plan, a classmate had been pulling and biting her hair daily for two months. Later that month, Jenny reported to Kay that a classmate was sending her Snapchat messages encouraging her to kill herself, while another student used a school computer to send racist messages to another person that said, “go tell to go and kill herself and “go tell that she is a Ni—er.” In April 2023, Principal Melissa Resh emailed the student body a warning about “bias-based harm” and bullying, and reminded students they would face consequences that could include a conference with parents, detention, and in-school suspension. The school’s social worker also communicated with parents about setting up anti-bias training for students and potentially for staff, reported WBEZ. An assistant principal emailed Hinton, promising “a thorough investigation” of her daughter’s claims about racist bullying, but no such investigation occurred, the lawsuit claims. At the outset of seventh grade, Jenny faced more racist Snapchat messages, the complaint says. School officials notified the perpetrator’s parent but imposed no discipline. Meanwhile, Principal Resh acknowledged “an uptick” in the use of the “N-word” at Wildwood at a Local School Council Meeting in October 2024. Later that month, several classmates called Jenny the racial epithet,” the complaint says. Wildwood suspended the offenders and OSP launched an investigation, substantiating bias-based harm. The students involved received a day of in-school suspension. Thereafter, Jenny was ostracized by her peers and faced escalating verbal and physical harassment, the lawsuit says. In November of 2024, Hinton contacted Resh and her daughter’s homeroom teacher, detailing retaliation-based name-calling and racial slurs directed at Jenny, including “snitch,” “monkey,” “gorilla,” and stereotypes about Black people loving fried chicken and watermelon. She was also allegedly shoved in the bathroom. On Nov. 12, 2024, Hinton filed a complaint with the federal Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education, which remains pending. The following week, Jenny endured more verbal abuse and told school staff, “I’m dying on the inside.” In December, she told Kay that she felt unsafe. In December, Hinton sent school staff emails that she was concerned the bullying was escalating and that the school was failing to address it, and warned the administration that she was considering legal action. The lawsuit says the school retaliated by separating Jenny from her trusted friend at school and surveilling her every movement, over Hinton’s objections. By late January 2025, Jenny was clinically diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and adjustment disorder attributable to school-based trauma, the complaint says. The harassment continued unabated, including in February 2025, when a student, L., choked Jenny and declared he “wished slavery never ended.” He also grabbed her breast, according to a report by Hinton. An OSP investigation into this incident remains pending, the lawsuit says. In March 2025, Jenny’s brother Brenton reported being called a “monkey” and that he was physically attacked during soccer. Hinton attended a school council meeting that month and “recounted the school’s failures,” along with other parents who corroborated what she said with similar experiences, the lawsuit says.“I don’t know my feelings anymore,” Jenny said in an interview with WBEZ in March. “I’m not happy, but I’m not sad. I’m not depressed, but I’m not joyful. I don’t know what I am. Like, everything sucks.” Principal Resh filed three retaliatory, unsubstantiated reports against Hinton with DFCS during the 2024-2025 school year, the complaint contends. School staff also falsely accused Jenny of “flashing” her peers, Hinton says, and “interfered with teen relationship by telling her boyfriend that she was ‘cheating.’” Jenny was hospitalized on May 2 and revealed to her medical providers that, in addition to the bullying and racial harassment, she had been sexually and physically abused by two physical education teachers, the complaint says. She said that Thomas Corlett, a student PE teacher, would “rub against her back with his private parts, experiencing an erection which was noted by other students.” And she said the primary PE teacher, Maria Elipas, “would strike her on the back with a clipboard or rolled-up paper.” Hinton filed a police report against Corlett and Elipas on May 3, prompting a forensic interview at the city’s Children’s Advocacy Center with Jenny on May 8. The lawsuit says there are currently eight criminal investigations pending as a result. “Despite Wildwood’s actual knowledge of the repeated bullying, harassment and Jenny Doe’s documented suicidal ideation, the school failed to implement timely, effective protection measures,” the complaint asserts. “Incidents persisted across three academic years, forcing Jenny Doe to endure escalating verbal abuse, physical intimidation and threats of sexual violence during school-sponsored activities.” The school and the Chicago Board of Education knew about the “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive race- and sex-based harassment” directed at the student “yet acted with deliberate indifference,” thereby depriving her of federal and state civil and human rights.” Hinton and her attorneys allege that the board of education failed to provide a safe and secure environment for its students; failed to enforce its student code of conduct, disciplinary policies and both city- and state-mandated policies requiring employees to immediately report suspected and known sexual abuse, bullying and race-based harassment. They also accuse the board of failing to properly supervise Jenny to prevent her from being sexually harmed and verbally and physically abused. Resh and assistant principal Matthew Fasana are individually accused of negligence for failing to prevent the ongoing abuse of Jenny and of violating the Illinois anti-bullying law, while Corlett and Elipas are accused of sexual battery and battery, respectively. All of the defendants are accused of negligent infliction of emotional distress.“They saw the signs, they had the reports, and still they did nothing,” Hinton said at a press conference in July. “This wasn’t a lack of awareness, it was a lack of action.” Hinton seeks a jury trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $50,000, and court injunctions to require the school board to implement and enforce policies to prevent student-on-student verbal, race-based and physical abuse, and to prevent teacher-on-student sexual harassment. “We didn’t ask for special treatment, just basic protection,” Hinton told ABC7. “But even that was too much to expect for a Black child in a white school.” She has withdrawn her children from Wildwood. The defendants have not yet filed responses to the complaint in Cook County Circuit Court. Chicago Public Schools said it wouldn’t comment on specific incidents involving Jenny Doe or the pending litigation to reporters, but when approached by WBEZ, Resh said there are “many sides to every story.” CPS officials defended the Wildwood administration’s handling of “incidents involving middle school students, including one student in particular.” “In line with District policy, school leadership has consistently monitored and supported the students involved over the past two years,” a spokesperson said in a written statement, noting that school documents don’t capture everything about a school’s efforts or its communications with a family.
