Los Angeles Rams superstar Erick Dickerson's family sued Oaks Christian School over allegations that their son was subjected to "relentless" racial bullying, according to a lawsuit.
The family's attorneys stated in their lawsuit that the Westlake Village private school "allowed, and by its repeated inaction actively encouraged," the racial harassment to continue despite the family reporting the incidents and a video showing a student beating the sixth grader.
In a statement, the school said it "disputes the allegations regarding its conduct and will respond through the legal process."
"Oaks Christian School is committed to the dignity of every student, consistent with our Christian faith," the school wrote. "This matter involves minors, and out of respect for the privacy of all students involved, we will not comment on individual students or the specifics of the case."
Attorneys claimed students repeatedly called the family's son racial epithets throughout his sixth-grade year. While they focused on a single student as the primary bully hurling slurs, the family's lawyers said several students joined in and called the sixth grader slurs throughout the school year.
"This is a sixth grade black boy who goes to school, thinks he's going to be safe there," said Robert Glassman, an attorney at Panish, Shea, Ravipudi LLP which is representing the family. "Thinks this is a place that has his well-bring at top of mind and what they end up doing is they subject him to horrible, ugly racism."
They added that the harassment extended outside of the classroom, highlighting an instance during a "school-sponsored field trip" to a zoo. The family's lawyers said the student continued to hurl racial slurs and compared Dickerson's son to a statue of an animal before his classmates joined in.
"The behavior was constant and widespread, and it occurred in a setting for which Oaks Christian bore full supervisory responsibility," lawyers wrote.
In the lawsuit, the family also claimed that an Oaks Christian School teacher accused their son of lying about the harassment after a student called him a racial epithet inside a classroom.
They also detailed an instance where a female student assaulted Dickerson's son during a lunch break, "striking him in the head, taking his lunch, and deliberately pouring out his water."
"Despite having video evidence, Oaks Christian's response was merely to bring the student in, speak with her, and advise her not to do it again. No meaningful disciplinary consequences followed," attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
The family pulled their son out of Oaks Christian School following the allegations.
"He's doing better because he's out of that environment," Glassman said. "The psychological harm that was done to him while at Oaks Christian, being routinely and repeatedly subject to racism in such an ugly way, like turning his last name into a racial slur, just horrible, despicable things."
