Two Black sisters who say they were repeatedly tormented with racial slurs and mockery at Millbury Memorial Junior/Senior High School have reached a settlement with Millbury Public Schools, closing out a civil rights complaint. The family later left the district altogether. The agreement includes undisclosed compensation and changes to how the district handles discrimination complaints, but it stops short of any admission that the school broke the law.
According to the Boston Globe, the settlement was reached without any admission of wrongdoing by the district or any finding that it violated the students’ civil rights. The compensation amount was not disclosed. The sisters, identified by GBH News as Melody and Kamora Dabney, had accused classmates of directing racial epithets at them and ridiculing the color of their skin, their hair texture, and their facial features.
The sisters and their mother filed the original complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in September 2024. The Dabney sisters ultimately left the school district and are no longer students there, per the same account from the station’s report on the case.
What the Settlement Changes
Beyond the undisclosed payment, the settlement requires Millbury Public Schools to revise its Civil Rights Grievance Procedures, according to the Globe’s reporting, with the goal of giving students better protections against racial bullying going forward. The case was also covered by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, which framed it as a racial discrimination case resolved between the family and the district.
A separate federal lawsuit against Nauset Regional School District was filed by a Black student and his father after the student attempted suicide following racial harassment at school. That case underscores the stakes attorneys say are tied to how school districts respond when students report being targeted.
A Broader Pattern in Massachusetts Schools
The Millbury settlement arrives alongside a wider investigation into how the state’s schools respond to bullying complaints. A GBH News investigation found a high rate of Massachusetts schools failing in recent years to investigate bullying allegations, according to GBH News, raising questions about potential violations of the state’s bullying prevention law. Reporting on the Millbury case does not establish whether that broader pattern applied to how the district handled the Dabney sisters’ specific complaints.
Similar disputes have surfaced elsewhere. In Chicago, a search-result snippet reported that the Board of Education unanimously voted to approve a $300,000 payment for the family of a girl who endured years of racist bullying, according to WBEZ Chicago, though that figure has not been independently verified here. The comparison illustrates that racial harassment complaints against school districts are drawing legal and financial consequences well beyond Massachusetts.
For now, the Millbury settlement closes the chapter that began with the Dabney family’s complaint two years ago, even as the sisters have already moved on from the district where they say the harassment took place.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to identify the cited news organization consistently as GBH News.
