Tennessee school district and DOJ reach agreement after investigation into student 'slave auction'

A Tennessee school district has reached an agreement with the Department of Justice after an investigation uncovered several racist harassment episodes.

The Justice Department launched an investigation into the Hawkins County School District in 2023 following a lawsuit by the mother of a student who faced most of the harassment. The investigation, under Titles IV and VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, found the district “deliberately indifferent to known race-based harassment in its schools, violating the equal protection rights of Black students.”