The parents of three former Kingsway Regional High school students who were suspended for 15 months for fighting at school have filed a civil rights lawsuit against the South Jersey school system.
The lawsuit alleges the students faced discrimination and were unfairly and severely punished for the March 2023 incident because of their race. It also claims they were subjected to a hostile school environment.
The five students involved in the fight were Black. They were given indefinite suspensions that lasted for 15 months — until their parents took costly legal action or moved to enroll them in different school districts.
“We believe that these students received disparate treatment from other similarly situated students at Kingsway,” Stanley O. King, a civil rights attorney with Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinin, said Tuesday. “I just don’t think they’re going to have many white kids sitting out of school for a year and a half.”
According to the New Jersey Department of Education, Black students constitute only 15.5% of the state’s student population, but account for 29.8% of referrals from schools to law enforcement and 28.9% of arrests in schools. Black students at Kingsway were suspended at a rate 3.3 times higher than white students in 2022-23, according to the report. About 11.2% of Kingsway’s 2,765 students are Black.
» READ MORE: Black and Hispanic students were disproportionately suspended, N.J. report shows
Kingsway School Superintendent James Lavender and board attorney Margaret Miller did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed last month in Superior Court in Gloucester County. They have previously cited student privacy laws in declining to comment on the suspensions.
The 2023 fight at Kingsway broke out between a group of girls, with the brother of one of the girls intervening. All five participants were charged with simple assault, which was later dismissed.
None of the students suffered serious injuries and there was no property damage at the school, according to the lawsuit. The district has said a staff member was injured attempting to break up the fight.
The fight began shortly after school began one morning when Shariya Houston, then a 14-year-old freshman, was attacked in the cafeteria, according to her mother, Cheree Edney. Her twin brother, Deron, intervened to protect her. Both were handcuffed and placed in a police car, Edney said.
“Really? They tried to criminalize these kids,” King said.
The parents and guardian of two other girls involved in the fight and also suspended may join the lawsuit later. Both enrolled elsewhere after Kingsway refused to lift their long-term suspensions.
In order for the students to return, the district had said they had to undergo risk assessments and psychological evaluations, the lawsuit said. Some agreed to psychological evaluation, but refused additional assessments.
Eventually, four students moved out of the district.
Only one of the five students, Sania Anderson, eventually returned to Kingsway. She went back at the start of the 2024-25 school year after her mother fought the suspension in court.
During a court hearing, Anderson apologized to Shariya for punching her during the altercation. A male classmate instigated the conflict, parents said.
Her mother, Naimah Howard, and the other parents also filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and called for an investigation into Kingsway’s disciplinary procedures.
“We have essentially been violated by the education system,” Howard said. “They need to be held accountable so this doesn’t happen to other students.
During the suspension, Anderson was home-schooled and missed her entire year. She was also banned from attending extracurricular activities, such as homecoming and football games.
In June 2024, then-acting state Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer intervened, ruling that Anderson must be allowed back immediately into the Woolwich Township school. His decision came on the day classes ended for the 2023-24 school year.
» READ MORE: South Jersey student talks about her yearlong suspension as others adjust to school elsewhere: ‘It was a hard lesson’
Anderson, now 18, graduated from Kingsway in June. She is a freshman business and accounting major at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Howard said her daughter suffers from anxiety and post-traumatic stress and has sought therapy. Anderson has said she learned a hard lesson.
“She’s resilient. She definitely doesn’t look like what she’s been through,” Howard said.
Edney said her children, 17, are now seniors and are trying to cope with the impact of their suspension on their emotional and mental health. She moved to Delaware and enrolled her children in school there.
“They had to rearrange their lives,” she said. “I don’t think that’s fair at all.”
The siblings were home-schooled during their suspension. Both have individual education plans that called for them to receive 10 hours a week of instructional support, Edney said. Instead, they were given an 800- number to seek help, she said.
Her daughter has not adjusted well and suffers from anxiety and weight loss, she said. The siblings are behind academically and are not ready for college, Edney said.
“It never really goes away,” the mother said.