A former student at Red Wing High School in Minnesota is suing school officials for failing to stop a group of students from celebrating what they called “Wigger Day” during homecoming week.
The federal class action suit says that the school failed to protect Quera Pruitt, a black student who graduated , from discrimination by ignoring the racially-charged way of celebrating homecoming week.
The student council officially designated Sept. 30 as “Tropical Day.” But Pruitt alleges that more than 60 upperclassmen instead declared it “Wigger Day,” around a pejorative term formed by combing the words white and n*gger. Those students wore “oversized sports jerseys, low-slung pants, baseball hats cocked to the side, and ‘doo rags’ on their heads,” according to the suit.
Though the school is predominately white, Pruitt’s lawyers say about 40 students suffered from the “racially hostile” environment created by “Wigger Day.” The suit claims that Red Wing’s principal knew that Wednesday of homecoming was “historically” called “Wigger Day” but didn’t stop the students.
Pruitt says she felt extreme stress and depression, to the point that it led her to drop out of cheerleading and the student council, and almost made her stop going to school altogether. She is suing for damages. Her lawyer says that Quera Pruitt is now living in Little Rock, Arkansas, and attending community college. He added that the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights “imposed several remedial measures” on the district.
Red Wing School District Superintendent Karsten Anderson, who is named as a defendant in the suit, said in a statement that the district “denies the allegations that it has created a racially hostile environment and looks forward to meeting these allegations in court.”
