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For the second time in less than a decade, the ACLU of Northern California today filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria alleging repeated acts of discrimination by Loleta Elementary School employees against Native students and students with disabilities.

According to the complaint, district employees, including at least two teachers, have regularly subjected Native students to verbal harassment and excessive discipline beyond what’s meted out to non-Native students. This pattern of disparate treatment “directly reflects discriminatory racial intent,” the complaint says.

As evidence, the filing cites firsthand accounts from parents and students and includes, as an exhibit, a recent report regarding a third-party investigation commissioned by the district in response to complaints from a parent. That investigation resulted in sustained allegations of discrimination against disabled students; failure to implement a student’s individualized education program (IEP) as required by law; and one teacher repeatedly demeaning and shaming students in class.

“The findings are damning and reveal a pattern of racial hostility,” said Carmen King, a communications strategist for the ACLU of Northern California. “These [findings] include multiple examples over the last year that Loleta Elementary staff has used racial slurs in their interactions with Indigenous students.”

The ACLU’s complaint, which was filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in San Francisco, comes nine years after that same office launched an investigation into the Loleta Union School District over very similar allegations made by the Wiyot Tribe, with support from the Bear River Band. 

The subsequent inquiry found substantial evidence that the district had created a hostile environment for Native American students, disciplining Native students more harshly than others and failing to provide legally mandated services for Native students with disabilities. 

This new complaint says these kinds of discriminatory behaviors have resumed at Loleta Elementary School.

“The case is centered on how the Loleta School District has denied Indigenous students, including disabled students, equal educational opportunities as required by the law by ignoring serious and repeated acts of discrimination and harassment,” said Linnea Nelson, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Northern California.

In a phone interview on Friday, Nelson said parents of impacted students have repeatedly raised these issues with administrators and staff, “and they have, unfortunately, been met with indifference, inaction and, in some cases, retaliation,” she said. “The Bear River Band tribal council felt that a very strong and serious response was needed to support those families and those students who are brave enough to come forward and really expose what has been happening in Loleta Elementary School classrooms over the last several months.”

One of those parents is Sarah Sand, who told the Outpost that her son was subjected to a variety of discriminatory behavior last school year, when he was in fifth grade. A Native American student, Sand’s son has been diagnosed with ADHD and sensory processing disorder, conditions which can manifest in fidgeting, wiggling in his seat or blurting things out when it’s not his turn to speak.

Her son’s IEP calls for a one-on-one aide, extra breaks and alternative testing methods, but Sand said her son’s teacher, Heather Nyberg-Austrus, failed to implement them. 

“There were many accommodations that could have made his life and his time easier, and she just refused to make them,” Sand said.

She said Nyberg would regularly call her at work to say her son was acting up so she should come pick him up. But when she talked to staff and administrators, she got conflicting reports. On the last day of school before Christmas break last year, she got another call to come get her son, but when she arrived at school a few minutes later she was told that staff had lost track of him. 

“And they said, ‘Well, he’s probably somewhere,’” Sand recalled. “And it was that moment when I realized that there was a big problem, because it was easier for them to lose my child than it was to implement his IEP or deal with him.”

She also heard disturbing anecdotes about Nyberg using racially coded language — referring to a group of Native students as a “gang,” for example, while referring to non-Native kids in more benevolent terms.

This past June Sand filed a complaint against the district and several staff members pursuant to the California Department of Education’s Uniform Complaint Procedures. She also reached out to the ACLU.

“It felt like the right move,” she said. “I felt that something was wrong, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. I knew his IEP wasn’t being implemented. I knew that they were just pacifying me. … That was when I said, you know, we have to talk to somebody. This has to stop.”

An investigation was conducted by the Whitestar Group, a neutral, private investigation firm based in Santa Rosa, and just last month Sand received a letter from Loleta Superintendent/Principal Linda Row summarizing the findings.

The evidence, including witness testimony, established that Nyberg had locked students out of class and excluded numerous students, including Sand’s son, from attending field trips as punishment for behaviors related to a recognized disability, according to Row’s letter. The investigation also found that her son’s IEP was not properly implemented and that Nyberg inappropriately raised her voice to Sand’s son and other students.

“Every witness provided numerous examples of [Nyberg] ‘screaming,’ ‘yelling’ and raising her voice to both students and other staff members … ,” Row’s letter says. “The school psychologist and several other witnesses observed negative impacts on students such as crying, saying [Nyberg] didn’t like them, and avoiding [Nyberg’s] class.”

Row’s letter went on to say:

The evidence supported the conclusion that, during the 2021-2022 school year, [Nyberg] shamed a specific student in front of his classmates by asking if he took his medication that day.

The evidence also supported the conclusion that, in July 2022, when a student, whose IEP calls for breaks, returned to class after a break, [Nyberg] asked the student’s aide, “Now where was he?” The aide responded, “He took a short break.” [Nyberg] then replied in front of the whole class, “A break from what, laying his head down on the table all morning?”

The district concluded that Nyberg had engaged in antagonistic, derogatory and discriminatory behavior toward students, bullying them to the point where they dreaded going to her classroom. Nyberg’s behavior violated several district policies, and Row’s letter to Sand said, “The District will be taking corrective action and informing [Nyberg] of District expectations.”

Sand wasn’t impressed. 

“What does that mean?” she said. “That doesn’t mean anything to me. Our children are still being harmed. The teacher is still teaching.”

Sand’s outrage is still raw, and she grew emotional when talking about the psychological impacts on her son.

‘The honest, hard truth is that my son experienced bullying from his teacher, from someone that I trusted to keep my child safe at school.’ —Sarah Sand

“The honest, hard truth is that my son experienced bullying from his teacher, from someone that I trusted would keep my child safe at school — an authority figure — and she abused that trust and she broke that trust and she made him feel like he was small, like he couldn’t function properly because of his disability.”

She said that at one point last school year, her son became so despondent that he drank a large amount of mouthwash, hoping it would make him sick enough to solve all his problems. Sand believes it was a suicide attempt.

“And I have been struggling with that ever since because he did not — this didn’t need to happen,” Sand said. “It didn’t need to happen at all. And I know my son is not the only child suffering.”

The ACLU complaint says that’s clearly true, and it cites several examples involving Nyberg as well as Loleta Elementary’s seventh-eighth-grade teacher, Mary Gustaveson.

“In November 2022, Ms. Gustaveson screamed so loudly at an Indigenous student that other students were afraid Ms. Gustaveson was going to hit the student,” the complaint says. It also alleges that Loleta Elementary employees have used racial slurs towards Indigenous students and disciplined Indigenous students more harshly than their non-Native peers.

The most egregious example of Loleta staff members’ racial hostility, according to the complaint, occurred when Nyberg, who is white, repeatedly used the “N-word” in the classroom while trying to explain to students that racial slurs are okay when used by people within the affected group — two Indigenous students calling each other “Indian giver,” for example — but not okay when used by people outside the group. 

“Multiple students in the class then replied to Ms. Nyberg that the ‘N-word’ was a bad word and always racist,” the complaint says. “Ms. Nyberg stated that her use of the ‘N-word’ in that conversation was not racist because no one in the classroom was Black and she was not directing the word at anyone.”

A footnote explains that Nyberg didn’t say “the N-Word” but instead used the actual word. “Since this word is one of the most offensive racial slurs in the English language, this complaint instead refers to it as the ‘N-word,’ but Ms. Nyberg used the full word throughout this exchange,” the footnote says. 

Numerous students were extremely upset by this incident, the report says, and it alleges that Nyberg has also used racially-coded, derogatory language to refer to Indigenous students and routinely prohibited Indigenous students from sitting in the seat closest to her desk, which many students view as a “privileged seat.”

The complaint says Nyberg’s offensive comments date back at least four or five years, including things she said during an all-school meeting to acknowledge that Loleta is on ancestral Wiyot land. 

“Ms. Nyberg spoke up in a very oppositional tone and said, ‘I’m a fifth-generation Ferndalian,’ strongly implying that her family has as much right to the land as the Wiyot people,” the complaint says, adding that this claimed entitlement “is deeply disturbing given that, approximately five generations ago, white settlers in Humboldt County engaged in massacres and other genocidal acts against local Indigenous communities, including the Wiyot people.”

The complaint cites examples of discriminatory behavior from other staff members, including Superintendent Row, saying she and the LUSD board of trustees “have acted with deliberate indifference to racial discrimination by failing to effectively respond to specific complaints of discrimination, retaliation, and verbal racial harassment against Indigenous students.”

As an example, the complaint says that the board responded to concerns about Nyberg’s use of the “N-word” with vague suggestions of “weak measures,” such as sending her to an unspecified training at some point in the future.

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Parents like Sand hope that the ACLU’s complaint will produce more tangible results. Nelson said the complaint filed by her organization nine years ago did seem to improve matters — for a while, anyway.

In 2017, the Loleta Union School District entered into a voluntary resolution agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, promising to engage with expert consultants, identify the root causes of discrimination, develop a corrective action plan and submit numerous progress reports.

The district eventually hired a psychologist, Sandy Radic-Oshiro, to serve as school climate director, a role that provided students with essential support, Nelson said.

“Her time, as I understand it, was funded through the Humboldt County Office of Education,” she explained. However, the school climate director position is no longer being funded, and Radic-Oshiro left the district this past June. “And I think that has had a significant negative impact on the district implementing the provisions of the previous settlement agreement with the federal government,” Nelson said.

The Bear River Band is requesting government-to-government consultation with the district — through the Office of Civil Rights — to discuss a new proposed resolution agreement. Nelson said the ACLU and the Bear River tribal council felt that filing a second complaint was necessary to underscore the gravity of the situation.

“That kind of racism affects students’ visions of themselves and their futures,” Nelson said, “and being subjected to racist remarks and stereotypes at school negatively impacts educational outcomes for Indigenous youth.”

Darrell Sherman can attest to the long-term harm caused by discrimination from a respected role model. A tribal council member and social worker who formerly worked as the tribe’s assistant director of social services, Sherman grew up in Loleta and attended the elementary school. In a phone interview last week he remembers having a strong bond with his teachers.

“I graduated from Loleta in ’96, and we had so much rapport with them because we had a lot of tenured [teachers],” he said. “Like, all the teachers knew your uncles and aunts and cousins, and some even taught your parents.” 

He doesn’t remember hearing any racist remarks from teachers, but he did once feel betrayed by his Little League coach, who he considered one of his best friends. One day while he was pitching in a game, Sherman kept making a mistake on the mound, dragging his back foot off the rubber plate in what’s called a balk — a violation that allows the batter to take a base.

His coach approached the mound, and while on his way he made a declaration loud enough to be heard by everyone nearby: “Oh, don’t worry about it; he’s Indian,” Sherman recalled. 

He was too wrapped up in the stress of the game to think much about the comment in the moment, but the remark stayed with him for years, this offhand suggestion that he was somehow deficient because of his ethnicity.

“I think of the situation and the experience that I had and the long-lasting negative effects,” Sherman said. “It’s just generations, you know?”

Reached by email on Friday, Loleta Union School District Principal/Superintendent Linda Row said she did not have any comment since she had yet to receive a copy of the complaint. The Outpost forwarded a copy to the district Monday morning. We’ll update this story if and when the district responds.

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DOCUMENT: OCR Complaint Re: Loleta Union School District

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Here’s a press release from the ACLU of Northern California:

Today, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed an administrative complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights on behalf of the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria regarding repeated acts of discrimination against Native American students and students with disabilities in Loleta Union School District.

The complaint reveals troubling patterns of racial hostility and cites multiple occasions over the last year that Loleta Elementary staff has used racial slurs and racially coded language in their interactions with Indigenous students. Parents of Indigenous students who have come forward to raise these issues with school administrators have been met with deliberate indifference and, in some cases, active retaliation from school staff. The failure to respond to complaints of discrimination and harassment is in opposition to the district’s own required policies and procedures.

The complaint also details repeated failures on behalf of school staff to make reasonable modifications to avoid discriminating against students with disabilities. Rather than modifying disciplinary policies and practices as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act, Loleta Elementary staff routinely punish disabled students for behaviors arising from their disabilities. Students who exhibit behaviors that are manifestations of their disabilities are often removed from classrooms and denied critical learning time.

Indigenous students with and without disabilities face disproportionately higher rates of exclusionary discipline, chronic absenteeism, and lower academic outcomes than their non-Indigenous peers. These disparities are particularly egregious in Humboldt County. A 2020 report authored by the ACLU titled, Failing Grade: The Status of Native American Education in Humboldt County found that Indigenous students in Humboldt County, including in Loleta USD, face vast disparities in academic outcomes. These negative outcomes are a direct result of systemic failures that cause Indigenous students to feel disengaged and unwelcome at school, such as bullying and racially hostile school environments; disparate use of disciplinary practices such as suspension, expulsion, and referrals to law enforcement; and failure to provide school-based student supports, including culturally relevant school-based mental health professionals.

“Explicit and implicit racism affects students’ vision of themselves and their futures. Being subjected to racist remarks and stereotypes at school negatively impacts educational outcomes for our native youth, said Darrell Sherman, Council Member of the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria. “We need to tell kids they are doing a good job; tell them they are going to succeed—and treat them accordingly. We all have a role in building up and protecting the youth in our community.”

Previously, the Humboldt County Office of Education provided a part-time School Psychologist and School Climate Director at Loleta Elementary to help to address discrimination experienced by Indigenous families and to create a more inclusive school culture. Unfortunately, the District failed to fill that position when it became vacant earlier this year. The absence of an effective School Climate Director has exacerbated much of the discrimination and harassment experienced by Indigenous students and their families.

“With the departure of the previous Superintendent and previous School Climate Director, the situation at Loleta Elementary has rapidly spiraled out of control, and the district is failing to take reasonable action to remedy or stop ongoing serious legal violations,” said Linnea Nelson, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California.” Indigenous students and students with disabilities are suffering at Loleta Elementary School because of employees’ discrimination against them. Robust corrective action is urgently needed.”

“The Bear River Band is committed to challenging historic inequities on behalf of its members and all Indigenous students,” said Josefina Frank, Chairwoman of the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria. “Remedying unlawful discrimination is essential to provide Indigenous students at Loleta with equal educational opportunities so they can further their education and achieve professional success.”