A Battle for the Souls of Black Girls

The New York Times featured Morrison & Foerster in its coverage of a groundbreaking federal lawsuit against the Binghamton City School district for conducting intrusive searches of four 12-year-old Black and Latina girls after they appeared “hyper and giddy” during lunch. 

The case, which a MoFo pro bono team filed along with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund, examines the disparate treatment and discipline rates of Black girls in United States schools. According to a study, Black girls are viewed by educators as “more suspicious, mature, provocative, and aggressive than their white peers,” and girls “as young as five were viewed by adults as less innocent than white girls,” which creates an “adultification bias” that leads to Black girls being disproportionately disciplined in schools, something the Binghamton lawsuit hopes to highlight and change.

The MoFo pro bono team serving as co-counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund is led by New York Litigation partners Jamie Levitt and Joshua Hill, with associates Yocaba Annobil, Amanda Gayer, and Chanwoo Park. 

Read the full article (subscription may be required).