The Courts
U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
ISD Didn’t Subject Student to Discrimination
Over His Muslim and Indian Heritage
Upheld: A federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by parents who claimed that they and their son were the targets of repeated discrimination and harassing acts at the son’s elementary school due to his Muslim and Indian background. Iqbal Bhombal, Individually and as next friend of Z.B., a minor; Marie Bhombal, v. Irving ISD, No. 19-10803. Issued May 5. Ordered “not published.”
Background
The record reflects that Z.B. and his family are Muslim. His father was born in India and is now a U.S. citizen. His Oregon-born mother is Caucasian and converted to the Muslim faith. Z.B. attended IISD’s Haley Elementary from kindergarten until his parents disenrolled him and his younger sister after he completed fifth grade.
Z.B.’s parents appealed to the Fifth Circuit after the trial judge dismissed their claims that they and their son were illegally discriminated against at Haley due to Z.B.’s Muslim faith and Indian heritage.
The parents cited numerous incidents in which they said showed Z.B. was discriminated against and harassed.
A few of their cited alleged incidents included: 1) his parents being summoned to school many times to address “small infractions,” 2) fights initiated by students who had called Z.B. “Tally” for Taliban and asked if he were Muslim, and 3) Z.B. being suspended for a day due to a series of events that started when an unfounded rumor spread that he had brought a bomb to school in his lunch box.
The complaint also said Z.B.’s father was encouraged to stop his practice of bringing his son lunch to school daily because the school did not serve food that was consistent with the family’s religious beliefs. (School officials said they wanted to encourage Z.B. to be more independent and to avoid disruption during the school day.)
During the course of Z.B.’s enrollment at Haley, Z.B.’s father filed a “hate crime” complaint with the school district as a result of one of the fights a student had with his son, and a mother of another student filed a police report against Z.B. as a result of another fight.
No Title VI Violations
The parents’ only remaining issue out of the many claims they had filed in their original lawsuit was the accusation that IISD violated Title VI of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in federally funded programs and activities.
A three member Fifth Circuit panel, in this decision, dismissed the parents suit on findings that none of their complaints met the minimum requirements for showing discrimination under Title VI.
Among other things, the justices noted that: 1) Title VI does not address religious discrimination complaints, 2) many of the complaints can be classified as only “subjective beliefs” that discrimination had occurred and 3) the parents failed to show that IISD acted with “deliberate indifference” to the complaints they raised.
The justices concluded that while the treatment allegedly endured by Z.B. and his family, if true, is “troubling,” not all troubling behavior is actionable under Title VI, and the parents failed to state a claim of relief under that statute.