D.C. Litigators Score Significant Appellate Victory in the Fourth Circuit
On January 7, 2025, Latham won a significant appellate victory in a Fourth Circuit decision recognizing a cause of action under Title VI for a school district’s deliberate indifference to student-on-student racial harassment. With this decision, our client’s allegations of racial harassment have rightly been recognized as sufficient, and she can now continue to pursue her claims in district court.
In 2016, our client — then a sophomore in high school — ran for student council in hopes of remedying its lack of diversity. Instead, this decision was met with racial harassment and cyberbullying from her peers, while the school district failed to intervene. Our client brought her case pro se, and the district court dismissed her complaint and then denied her motion for leave to amend.
Our client appealed, and Latham got involved when the Fourth Circuit appointed the firm to represent her on appeal. We argued that the district court erred, and that the Fourth Circuit should both recognize Title VI and Equal Protection claims for deliberate indifference to student-on-student racial harassment and find that our client’s complaint adequately pleaded those claims.
The Fourth Circuit panel unanimously agreed with Latham’s arguments in a published opinion in January 2025. It reversed the judgment below, ordered the district court to allow our client to amend her complaint, and remanded for further proceedings. In the opinion, the Fourth Circuit joined several other circuits by recognizing a Title VI claim for student-on-student racial harassment. It also found that our client had adequately pleaded claims under Title VI for discrimination and retaliation, and for Equal Protection violations against several administrators and the Board.
The Latham team consisted of associate Alex Siemers (who was appointed by the Fourth Circuit and who argued the appeal) and partner Melissa Arbus Sherry. Invaluable assistance was also provided by partners Roman Martinez, Susan Engel, Michael Bern, and Eric Konopka; associates Maggie Upshaw and Blake Stafford; senior paralegals Olga Baeza and Rachel Jaffe; and former associate Charlie Dameron.