Civil rights lawsuit filed against Lee County School District

Did the Lee County School District allow racism to run rampant?

The parents of 16-year-old Madrid Tucker filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the district in response to how they say he was treated on the baseball team at Fort Myers High School.

On Valentine’s Day 2023, an assistant coach from the Fort Myers High School baseball team sent a text message to the entire team saying “Happy Valentine’s Day,” followed by a racial slur.

Less than a day later, that coach was out of a job. What followed was an investigation by the district that resulted in the head coach also losing his job.

The firing of the coaches sparked a walkout by the baseball team members halfway through one of their games.

The only two players who were not told about the walkout were two black players on the team. They were left standing on the field while the rest of the players walked away.

Their families said they were never told about the walkout and were isolated by the team.

One of the two players left standing on the field is at the center of this lawsuit.

“Not one black team member was told about the walkout, so they weren’t able to participate,” said Dee Tucker, the player’s parent. “It was planned only for two black kids to be left behind. This is 100% premeditated, malicious.”

Tucker addressed the school board last April. Her son is at the heart of the federal civil rights lawsuit filed against the school district, the school board, the former coaches and school officials.

The lawsuit claims Madrid Tucker was unlawfully targeted and discriminated against and was peppered with racial slurs, insults and threats by school officials.

The school district concluded the text itself is not a violation of federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, but they did find that some players on the team were treated differently, and they admitted that the district failed to step in and fix things before it got out of control.

WINK reached out to Michael and Dee Tucker but could not get in touch with them; however, we spoke briefly with Madrid and asked him to have his parent call us back.

His father called back to say he did not want to comment.

We’ve also reached out to the legal team representing the Tucker family, along with the former coaches who were fired and the school officials.

None of them responded to our calls.

Only the district sent us a statement saying it is inappropriate for them to comment on pending litigation.

We’ll let you know when we hear back from anyone involved in this federal civil rights lawsuit.