SOMERS POINT — The mother of a former St. Joseph Regional School student is suing the Diocese of Camden and the school claiming both parties didn’t do enough to stop alleged acts of racial discrimination against her son.
Julie Rodriguez filed the lawsuit on behalf of her son Feb. 29 in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey and listed the diocese, St. Joseph, Superintendent William Watson and Principal Janice DeCicco Fipp as defendants.
Neither the diocese nor St. Joseph responded to a request for comment.
Rodriguez alleges racial discrimination and misconduct against her son that began in second grade when a teacher pulled her son out of the pew during his first Holy Communion. The teacher then placed him with an African American family as the teacher believed he was with the wrong family, according to the suit.
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Court documents show classmates hurled racial slurs at Rodriguez’s son due to his haircut in third grade.
During the 2021-22 school year, when Rodriguez’s son was in seventh grade, a student made racist remarks toward one of his friends before the same individual sent Rodriguez’s son a text of a similar nature, the suit states.
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“In the text message thread, he states, ‘I hate black people,’” the suit states.
Rodriguez alleges these incidents were reported to Fipp, but no action was taken.
In May 2022, Fipp met with Rodriguez and said her son would need to undergo a mental health evaluation after he made threatening comments toward the person who sent those text messages.
But when Rodriguez asked her son whether he made those comments, he said he didn’t, according to the suit.
Rodriguez continued to pay tuition and kept her son enrolled at the school before transferring him to a public school May 25, 2022.
Rodriguez is seeking damages resulting from the defendants’ alleged negligence, breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and violation of the Consumer Act.
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