Minnesota High School Taken To Court Over “Wigger Day”

In a baffling lack of oversight that incited a federal class-action lawsuit, a Minnesota school district allowed students to hold an unofficial Homecoming event called “Wigger Wednesday” at Red Wing High School in 2009. The suit alleges that some 60 students came to school that day wearing “oversized sports jerseys, low-slung pants, baseball hats cocked to the side and ‘doo rags'” and “mimick[ed] black culture.” More from Huffington Post:

The plaintiff, former Red Wing High School student Quera Pruitt, an African American, claims that the school’s lack of intervention caused her “severe emotional distress including depression, loss of sleep, stress, crying, humiliation, anxiety, and shame.”…

Pruitt’s attorney, Joshua Williams, says her family hoped the incident would be addressed following “Wigger Day” 2008. While it was never an officially-sanctioned school event, the family discovered “Wigger Wednesday” was something of a tradition.

After the 2009 incident, “[Pruitt’s] mom came up to the school, attempted to reach out to the school board, the superintendent, and the principal, but Red Wing’s response was essentially to sweep this under the rug and act like it didn’t happen,” Williams told The Huffington Post.

According to Williams, Pruitt became depressed, quit the cheerleading squad, left student council, skipped her senior prom and even considered dropping out of school.

Students at Red Wing also called the day “Wangsta Day,” and created a Facebook group for the event. The district denies allegations that it created a racially hostile environment and has stated that it “looks forward” to its defense in court.