White Students In Virginia Sue After Their ‘Prank’ Gift of Fried Chicken with a Side of Racial Slurs To Black Friend Gets Them Suspended
An alleged incident of racial harassment against a Black high school student in Virginia Beach last year has spawned five civil lawsuits by families of the white students involved who say they were unfairly branded as racist bullies and harshly disciplined for what they considered a harmless “prank” among friends. On March 12, 2025, a group of six white students at Kellam High School gave a Black student a bag filled with items including fried chicken, watermelon, Sour Patch Kids, grape Kool-Aid, and a birthday card with handwritten racial slurs including "blackie monkey,” “wassup my ni” and “from your favorite Klan.” It also featured a drawing of a monkey's face. Kellam High School (Photo: Virginia Beach Schools website) The families' attorney argues it was an ill-advised joke among friends and that the alleged victim had asked his friends, whom he regularly socialized and played basketball with, to bring him fried chicken for his birthday and said he thought the card was funny. Video later obtained from the school's surveillance camera showed all of the students laughing and hugging in the hallway afterward, he said. “They gave their friend a birthday gift, and in hindsight, was it the smartest thing to do? No. But these are ninth graders, and ninth graders don’t make the best judgment, so the context matters,” Tim Anderson, the attorney representing the student plaintiffs, told 13NewsNow. ‘Don’t Touch’: Black Father Flew Over ‘Like Superman’ and Tackled White Man Who Put Hands on His Son at a Youth Basketball Game in Viral Video According to one of two federal defamation lawsuits filed on behalf of four of the white students in August (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star), a teacher who witnessed the gift exchange reported what looked like insulting Black stereotyping to a school resource officer, triggering school officials to interview the students involved and several witnesses. The anonymous plaintiffs contend that “all witnesses gave statements consistent with the fact that the group was all friends, consisting of various races, that the incident was a joke towards a close friend, and the gift recipient received the gift as a joke and a friendly gift.” But in the initial investigative report by the school, a witness claimed the victim was not excited about the gifts and was overheard saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The witness also said the victim did not seem to reciprocate the hug.In the same report, the victim gave a statement, which said in part, "What they handed me in the bag was Black people food. (Pretty racist).” The report concluded that the students had violated the school’s bullying and racial harassment policies and noted that the victim was a special education student, that the incident had caused “extreme emotional trauma to the student and their family,” and that his parents had asked for him to be placed in a different school. Within hours of the incident, Kellam High Principal Ryan Schubart was receiving concerned inquiries from the local NAACP, school board members and other community members. The following day, Schubart sent an email to the school community that described the incident as an act of “racial harassment” and said the students, who weren’t named, would be disciplined “to the fullest extent possible.” The Virginia Beach Commonwealth Attorney’s office called the incident “reprehensible” in a statement but said it did not rise to the level of a crime under state law. The Virginia Beach NAACP lamented the “rise in emboldened racist behavior” that “our youth must continue to endure” and said it would closely follow the ongoing investigation. Multiple news outlets reported on the incident, quoting the principal’s email and “condemning statements” by community leaders about the alleged racist harassment, the complaint says, including by members of the Virginia General Assembly. Schubart and the school district’s public information officer circulated a “false narrative” of racial harassment about what was actual a “jovial” exchange among friends, the lawsuit says, arguing that all of the negative publicity that preceded the school district’s investigation prematurely tainted the student plaintiffs as “racist bullies,” inflamed public sentiment against them, and prevented them from receiving a fair shake at the school board disciplinary hearing held on April 30, 2025. “They shouldn’t have been brought out to the town square and castigated in front of the entire community, with adults weighing in, calling them racist. You don’t do that to children. It ruins their lives,” Anderson told local station WAVY. The plaintiffs attorneys also say that the school refused to provide exculpatory evidence to the students’ families prior to the hearing, including the school surveillance video of the incident, claiming that parents of all students in the video needed to give permission first. The plaintiffs say that’s not so. All six of the white students were found by school officials to have violated the district’s racial bullying policy, which was noted on their permanent school records, and they received deferred long-term suspensions from Kellam High School through October. They were allowed to transfer to nearby Renaissance High School. The students filed five different lawsuits in Virginia Beach Circuit Court in connection with the incident afterwards, including three petitions for judicial review relating to three students' suspensions, a $10 million defamation lawsuit filed on behalf of three students, and a $3 million defamation lawsuit filed on behalf of another. The two defamation suits were moved to federal court in August. The family of the Black student involved has not made a legal claim. The three students in the $10 million lawsuit claimed that as a result of the principal’s “false and defamatory” email and the news reports that followed, they were repeatedly threatened with harm, stalked and confronted by adult strangers and suffered damage to their property. The students also suffered emotional distress and “irreversible harm to their reputations within the community.” The defendants in that case — Principal Schubart, Chief of Schools Mathew Delaney and Superintendent Ronald Robertson — argue that they did not defame or violate the equal protection rights of the disciplined students, who got a chance to present witnesses and to defend themselves, and could have appealed the hearing officer’s decision. They also claim immunity from liability. A hearing in that case regarding the defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit is scheduled for Jan. 16 in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. The student in the $3 million lawsuit also claims school officials conspired to violate his constitutional rights, including the right to due process. The same defendants are expected to file a motion to dismiss that case later this week.
