Lee County NAACP declines meeting with Babcock Neighborhood School

A day after Babcock Neighborhood School released a statement addressing the lawsuits filed against the school alleging racial discrimination, James Muwakkil, the president of the Lee County Branch of the NAACP said he is not interested in meeting on “their terms.”

• RELATED: Babcock Neighborhood School responds to lawsuits

The NAACP held a press conference outside of the school earlier this month after several bi-racial students said they were called the “n-word,” “cotton picker,” “monkey” and much more.

In a statement to WINK News, Shannon Treece, the Executive Director for the school said, “In recent days, Babcock Schools has made multiple attempts to engage with Mr. Muwakkil and the Lee County NAACP but those attempts have been ignored to date. We are continuing to offer and encourage open lines of communication with the Lee County NAACP and as we work with our staff, students and parents on strengthening our procedures and reaffirming our school values.”

• RELATED: Babcock Neighborhood School faces more discrimination lawsuits

Now, Muwakkil is responding. In an interview with WINK News, we asked Muwakkil why he was not responding to the school’s request for an interview.

“If they were sincere, we would already know because they would have went and done something. We would know that they’ve suspended students, we would know that they’ve terminated teachers, we would know that they removed coaches,” Muwakkil said. “We would know, but they haven’t done any of that. They’ve left everything in place, and so we see no reason at this point in time to meet with them. Our goal is to pursue civil rights violation complaints but not just complaints. We want civil rights laws upheld.”

In a statement to WINK News, Babcock Neighborhood School said, “The Babcock Schools administration and staff take all complaints of discrimination, harassment and bullying very seriously. While it is our policy not to comment on investigations or the discipline of our students, we can confirm a thorough investigation was conducted surrounding this incident and significant action was taken in line with our policies.”

Muwakkil said he’s not interested in meeting until the school can give specifics on how students and staff accused of making these comments were disciplined.

“Them reaching out to us to meet doesn’t mean a hill of beans to me,” Muwakkil said. “I don’t necessarily want to meet with them. I want what they’re allowing to be stopped, but they haven’t done so. They have not stepped up and said, ‘We won’t tolerate this.'”

The attorney representing Babcock Neighborhood School sent Muwakkil a letter. Part of the letter said, “We are concerned that rather than actually meeting to discuss the issues, there is a campaign against the school accusing it of refusing to meet.”

Here is Muwakkil’s response to that.

“They have not given us a reason to meet with them. They need to prove themselves to be genuine and they’ve been very disingenuous for years. Students have been going through this racial attack at Babcock school, both in elementary, middle and high school, and no one has done anything about it. Even though it had been brought to the administration’s attention over and over and over and over again,” Muwakkil said.

Muwakkil said he is continuing to collect evidence and plans on making sure the U.S. Department of Justice is involved.

“Don’t play with me, Babcock. Don’t play with me. Don’t come and say we want to meet with you and have your attorney send me a letter saying, ‘Well, why are we not meeting?’ Because you’re not sincere. You’re not for real. You want to meet with me so that you can tell the public, ‘We’re working together. The NAACP and us are working together,'” Muwakkil said. “We may very well get to that point, but we’re not there now. Right now, we are preparing our arsenal, our documentation. We’re preparing our documentation, in which we have plenty of documentation.”

Muwakkil said he is not opposed to meeting with Babcock Neighborhood School, but they need to know, he will not be alone.

“We’ll meet with them when we have gotten everything together with the United States Attorney’s Office. It will not be before the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division gets involved, and we’re in the process of involving them,” Muwakkil said. “We’re asking them to come, and let’s address that school. The Department of Justice has the autonomy to fire people, give people money, change policies, implement policies, suspend. They can make arrests, and so we want to see some of that.”

Babcock Neighborhood School is on fall break until Oct. 27, Muwakkil said the plan is to protest and hold picket signs outside of the school with the names of the staff members they’re calling to resign on them.