Texas girl called ‘ape,’ ‘slave’ by middle school classmates

A girl at a middle school in central Texas told a fellow classmate in May that she looked like an ape. She also referred to the African-American student as a slave and pretended to whip her, according to a written report from officials at Tippit Middle School in Georgetown, about 30 miles outside Austin.

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A male student also made a racial remark to the black student, the report said.

The father of the 12-year-old girl who was harassed, Robert Ranco, said last week that the school did not appropriately discipline the girl or other students involved in the incidents. None of the students were suspended, said Ranco, who is a civil rights lawyer in Round Rock.

He also said district officials did not refer to the episodes as bullying, which he believed they should have done.

“It makes me feel like the school district is sweeping this under the rug,” he said.

“Georgetown ISD has had a least a few suicides in the last five years resulting from bullying. … I don’t have that concern for my daughter, but I’m sure other parents didn’t think their kids were suicidal, either.”

The Georgetown school district didn't respond to a request for comment Friday.

According to the school’s report, Ranco’s daughter “was a victim of more than one incident of racially harassing conduct from classmates.”