School Trustees Reject Claim for $1 in Damages Over Racial Slur

Rio School District trustees have denied a claim for damages by the parents of a black 10-year-old who says his fourth-grade teacher called him “Buckwheat.”

By a unanimous vote at a school board meeting Tuesday, the trustees turned down a demand by the parents of Esteen Love III for $1 in damages from both the district and the teacher, as well as an apology “in front of the entire fourth-grade class and such members of the press as are invited, acknowledging her inappropriate conduct.”

The trustees made no public comment, but an attorney representing the district denied the allegation against El Rio Elementary School teacher Deborah McIntosh.

The parents, Esteen Jr. and Janice Love, claim the teacher told their son to “sit down, Buckwheat, and do your work.”

“The things that are alleged just didn’t occur,” said Herbert F. Blanck of Camarillo, an attorney for the school district.

The attorney representing the student and his parents in the claim, Phillip Feldman of Sherman Oaks, called the denial “sad and unfortunate,” and pledged to file a lawsuit for emotional damages and damages based on defamation of character sometime within the next six months, the statute of limitations on such an action.

Feldman recently won another case involving racial slurs by employees of the Magic Mountain amusement park.

The Loves said that McGarry and other district officials have offered varying explanations for the incident, including that McIntosh really called the boy not Buckwheat but “Buckeroo” and that the alleged gaffe “just slipped out” over the course of a classroom discussion on wheat.

“In effect, they’re calling the boy a liar,” Feldman said. “To add injury, they’re trying to create a paranoid 10-year-old.”