ELDRED  — A Federal discrimination complaint has been filed against the Eldred Central School District after it was claimed that a teacher who made degrading and racial remarks about two black students.

Now residing in Pennsylvania are the students, who were only named as D.C. and T.B. in the lawsuit, together with their families.

The complaint claims that in February, Monique-Gale Messina, an Eldred Junior Senior High School teacher, asked the pupils in front of other students in a classroom if they were “pure-bred Black” by referring to their fair complexions and hair textures.

The lawsuit was filed in the New York State Supreme Court last month and was transferred to a federal court in White Plains this week. 

The students’ lawyer, Jay Weinstein, declined to comment on the case. The district also had no comment due to pending litigation, Eldred Superintendent Traci Ferreira stated in an email.

The lawsuit states that the students reported Messina, who is white, to the school district. This resulted in an investigation which revealed that the teacher “engaged in an inappropriate and racially discriminatory conversation that utilized discriminatory vocabulary and statements.”

According to the lawsuit, the school failed to take “any steps to protect the students from being subjected to further acts of racial prejudice, discrimination, and unwarranted hate” or dismiss Messina “despite the clear and unequivocal findings” of misconduct.

According to the complaint, Messina’s actions violated the state’s Dignity for All Students Act, which was enacted in 2010 and aims to give students a safe and encouraging environment free from bullying, harassment, taunting, intimidation, and discrimination on school property, on school buses, and/or during school events.