A 17-year-old Black student who attacked a White schoolmate for his continuous use of the N-word was sentenced to 45 days in an alternative school for students with severe disciplinary problems, according to an exclusive NBC News report.
Autumn Roberson-Manahan, a straight-A student at a local Texas school, said that for four days in a row, she heard a boy in her class using the N-word and pleaded with him to stop.
She recalled the boy saying: “Oh! I’m ballin’ on y’all n—-s.”
In another incident, she said he used the slur again. “These dumb n—-s left the balls out again.”
Later in the semester, she recalls the same student using the N-word again while smirking after hitting a jump shot during a game of basketball.
It was at that point that she decided to report the student to school authorities. She said that she and the other Black students at the school – only 12 Black students in total – had lodged complaints about the racial harassment and soon filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.
Soon after, she secretly recorded two boys calling her the N-word. It would soon be a day she would never forget.
During an exchange, the boy hurled the racial slur at her again, causing her to snap. “I told you to stop using that word,” Autumn is heard saying in a recording captured by another student.
“My mindset was: ‘This is the only way it’s going to stop. This is the only way he’s going to learn,’” she told NBC.
Autumn, who has no major disciplinary history, proceeded to grab the boy by his shirt and started slapping him repeatedly while yelling: “You’re gonna learn! … To stop! … That f——! … N—– shit!”
As the boy fled from Autumn’s grasp, she began to cry.
“It’s not OK!” Autumn yelled while in tears. “It’s racist!”
It was the beginning of a long road ahead for Autumn. School administrators sentenced her to 45 days in an alternative school for students with severe disciplinary problems. Her hopes were to become the school’s valedictorian, but now she worries if she will graduate on time.
Her family told NBC that she has become so distraught that she recently ran away with the intent to kill herself.
“They took my beautiful baby girl — who my husband and I worked so hard to mold and love and support — and they broke her,” Autumn’s mother, JaQuatta Manahan, said in an NBC interview. “They didn’t protect her. They cast her aside like she was trash.”
A collective group of civil rights organizations, including the NAACP and the ACLU have filed federal complaints with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights on behalf of Autumn and other Black students. The complaint was filed in part because they believe her punishment was excessive while the White students who harassed her for months faced minimal consequences.
The complaint also states that Autumn’s school failed “to effectively and appropriately prevent, identify, and respond to racial bullying and harassment.”
Last month, several parents spoke out in defense about Autumn’s case, leading high school officials to revise their disciplinary policy.
Under the new rules, “students will face increasingly severe punishments for saying racial slurs at school, culminating with 30 days in DAEP for third offenses,” the district said in a statement.
