DOJ found Ellensburg School District failed to protect Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ students from pervasive harassment including slurs, physical assaults, and death threats, entering a settlement agreement in December 2024 requiring a third-party consultant, Spanish-language liaison, and new reporting systems.

Ellensburg School District — Failure to Protect Students from Race, National Origin, and Sex Harassment (2021–2024)

Outcome: The U.S. Department of Justice found that Ellensburg School District in Washington failed for three school years to protect Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ students from pervasive harassment including slurs, intimidation, physical assaults, and death threats, reaching a settlement agreement in December 2024 that requires structural reforms and independent oversight.

Ellensburg School District is a small rural district in Kittitas County, Washington. The DOJ opened an investigation in August 2023 under Titles IV and VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, reviewing records from the 2021–22 through 2023–24 school years and interviewing more than 100 current and former students, employees, and parents.

What investigators found was a district-wide pattern of harassment that had been allowed to persist largely unchecked. Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ students reported experiencing racial slurs and epithets, anti-LGBTQ+ taunts, intimidation, humiliation, and — in multiple instances — physical assaults and death threats on school grounds. Despite being aware of these incidents, district administrators failed to take effective remedial action.

DOJ concluded in December 2024 that the district had "failed" its obligations under three separate federal civil rights statutes. The settlement agreement requires Ellensburg to retain a third-party consultant to oversee compliance, designate a district harassment coordinator, hire a Spanish-speaking liaison to ensure Latino families can communicate effectively with the district, implement a new electronic reporting and tracking system for harassment complaints, update all related policies and procedures, and provide mandatory training to all staff and students on how to recognize and report harassment.

The case reflects a documented failure in proactive civil rights enforcement: the district was aware of the harassment environment but lacked both the systems and the institutional will to intervene before federal investigators documented the pattern across three academic years.

Primary Source: Justice Department Secures Agreement to Protect Students in Washington State School District from Harassment based on Sex, Race and National Origin | DOJ