Private settlements have been reached in two federal lawsuits against Roseville Area Schools and a former second-grade teacher accused of discriminating against her Black students.
The lawsuits accused Geraldine Cook of making the four to six Black students in her class sit apart from their peers in 2019.
Stephanie Smith said Cook grabbed her daughter’s arm and pulled hard enough to rip her shirt sleeve, according to the lawsuits.
Kirsten Lindsey said Cook choked her son after he gargled water, then forced him to walk to the principal’s office with his hands behind his back, the lawsuits say.
Lawyers for the two women said the school district knew for years that students were unsafe in Cook’s classroom but failed to protect them.
“Roseville Area Schools knew that one of its second grade teachers was discriminating against her African-American students and lashing out at them in disturbing and unsafe ways. Despite this knowledge, it did nothing to protect those students, allowing the teacher to stay in the classroom with minimal supervision,” attorney Sam Kramer wrote in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in 2020.
Cook, now 58, taught at Harambee Elementary, a year-round racial integration school.
According to Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board records obtained by the Pioneer Press, the school district was told in April 2015 that Cook “had placed her hands on students and yelled at students in anger or frustration.”
In the months and years that followed, the records show the district learned Cook had grabbed a child by the arm, causing the student to fall; tapped a student on the head with a stack of papers; placed her hands on a student; and physically moved a student into a bus seat.
It wasn’t until October 2019, when Cook reportedly “pushed a student into a wall with both of her hands, causing the student to hit his head on the wall and become dizzy” that Roseville placed Cook on administrative leave for two weeks, then told her she’d be fired if she did not resign, the records show.
Cook resigned her job on Dec. 2, 2019, and agreed to give up her teaching license the following summer.
Court records indicate the lawsuits filed by Smith and Lindsey both were resolved with private settlements; one case was closed this week, the other in January.
“Roseville Area Schools is pleased the parties were able to resolve this matter,” the district said in a statement to the Pioneer Press. “The school district looks forward to serving its families and continuing in its mission to provide quality teaching and learning with equity in all we do.”
Attorneys for Cook and the plaintiffs did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.