ATLANTA — A woman who said her business provided after-school services for some Atlanta Public Schools students has filed a new lawsuit against the district claiming racial discrimination and retaliation.
In the complaint, Kila Posey claimed some of her contracts were allegedly terminated after reporting racial discrimination at Mary Lin Elementary School. Posey and her attorneys are demanding a jury trial, according to the suit. It was filed Monday against the district and the principal at Mary Lin.
Posey - who is also a parent of two APS students -- owned a business called "The Club" where she would often provide her services to several APS elementary schools, the complaint said. The lawsuit stated some of the schools, including Mary Lin Elementary, allegedly ended her contract out of retaliation.
Posey previously exposed the elementary school, alleging the principal restricted Black second-graders to two home room classes. The U.S. Department of Education decided to open a federal investigation into the racial discrimination claim.
Posey found out about the segregated classes after she decided to request one of her two children be moved to a specific home room teacher before the 2020-2021 school year. The administration of the school was known for honoring the requests from faculty members, the lawsuit stated. The principal, the complaint claims, allegedly told Posey "she had designated two other home rooms in the second-grade class as the 'Black classes' for that year."
It was later discovered that the assistant principal was allegedly aware of the segregated classes and admitted to knowing in a recorded phone conversation that happened in 2021.
After opening an investigation, APS chief academic officers determined that the principal did segregate her classes. The administrators did not take any action against or for the principal, according to the suit.
Federal court records also said that Posey took her terminated contracts to APS administrators who were reportedly suppose to investigate, but never did.
After submitting multiple Open Records requests with the district for records about her complaints, she received only a few documents out of 6,000 alleged emails. None of the records she received stated the reason as to why Posey's contracts were terminated. A letter by the district's office of internal compliance was then sent out last August finally stating that Posey's contract was terminated over "concerns over declining enrollment".
Posey's attorneys cited the district not only supposedly violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, but another law regarding racial discrimination, the First Amendment and Georgia's Open Records Act.
Court documents said that Posey hopes for a trial, renewal of Mary Lin's contract with her business, and pay of damages and fees.
The district, in a statement, said they could not comment on the issue due it being a pending issue in court. It read:
"Atlanta Public Schools has received notice from the Office of Civil Rights that a complaint was filed, and the district is following OCR’s process. We have also recently received notice that Ms. Posey filed a federal lawsuit. Given that these matters are either pending before a federal administrative agency for consideration or are in litigation, APS has no further comment."
