A principal at Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has been accused of aggressively bullying and tormenting a first-grade student whose parents are homosexual.
A lawsuit recently filed in federal court claims that Kasongo Kalumbula, who is currently the principal at MPS’s Bethune Academy, targeted the unnamed student for physical and verbal mistreatment during his time as an assistant principal at the Milwaukee French Immersion School (MFIS) from fall 2018 to some point in the 2021–2022 school year.
According to the lawsuit, CBS 58, the lawsuit asserts that Kalumbula started a pattern of harassing and threatening behavior towards the student that continued for several years after a meeting with one of the first grader’s parents to discuss bullying the student faced on the playground. During this initial meeting with Kalumbula and the school’s principal, Kalumbula reportedly yelled “no queer is going to speak to me like this!”
Kalumbula reportedly locked the student in a dark room for over an hour in spring 2019 and threatened to harm him if he told anyone. After being bullied again by other students for having gay parents in spring 2021, Kalumbula allegedly told the student that most people think it is wrong to be gay and that he (Kalumbula) believed that gay people are “evil” and will “burn in hell.”
When a new MFIS principal alerted Kalumbula that the student’s parents had expressed concerns about the harassment the following September, Kalumbula allegedly pushed the child against a wall in the school’s hallway. Kalumbula supposedly “grabbed the child by the arm,” pulling him into an office a few days later.
As per the lawsuit, which names Kalumbula and the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, the student’s parents tried multiple times to address the situation with Milwaukee Public Schools. However, they claim that “at no point did anyone from the MPS administration offer supportive services or protective measures.” Instead, the lawsuit alleges, they encountered hostility from staff that was so intense that they eventually transferred their child to a school in another district in the middle of the school year. The student is currently receiving treatment for anxiety and trauma resulting from Kalumbula’s purported harassment.
The lawsuit also alleges that at least three other LGBTQ+ families withdrew their children from MFIS due to Kalumbula’s “discriminatory attitudes.”
In a statement to CBS 58, a spokesperson for MPS chose not to comment on the lawsuit but mentioned that the district “takes its responsibility for students seriously and acts when issues are identified.”
