The New Mexico Supreme Court rules schools can be sued over discriminatory conduct
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The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for an anti-discrimination lawsuit to proceed against the state’s largest school district, ruling that public schools and universities can be sued for discriminatory conduct under the New Mexico Human Rights Act.
The ruling stems from a 2018 case in which a high school teacher in Albuquerque was accused of cutting off one Native American girl’s hair and asking another if she was dressed as a “bloody Indian” during class on Halloween. That 16-year-old Navajo student was in a costume and had fake blood on her cheek.
Outrage over the girls’ treatment prompted legislation in New Mexico and elsewhere to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyle and religious head garments. “The NMHRA’s protections against numerous forms of discrimination must be read against the backdrop of this state’s unfortunate history of race-based discrimination, including that history transpiring within our public schools," the court wrote. “The intent to prohibit discrimination in public schools has been apparent since the inception of statehood.”.
The ruling affirmed a 2023 decision by an appellate court and concluded that public schools are a place of “public accommodation” under terms of the state’s anti-discrimination law. The court wrote that public schools do not restrict their services in a way that makes their use private, and it noted that the state constitution mandates that public schools in New Mexico be open to all children.
