In January 2022 the Edwards family moved into the city of Bonham, driving past a Confederate statue in front of the Fannin County Courthouse, as they made their way to their new home. Overlooking the city, one side of the statue’s inscription reads: “To the Confederate soldiers who sacrificed their lives for a just cause, this monument is lovingly dedicated.” The other says: “They fought for principle, their homes and those they loved.
During his first week of school, other kids taunted the Edwards’ 12-year-old son Brilliant, telling him to “go back and pick cotton.” Over the next year, he faced a series of racially motivated attacks by students, school officials, and police officers, resulting in his unjustified arrests and removal from school at the age of 13 in December 2022, according to allegations in a new civil rights complaint.
“Students of color deserve safe, supportive educational environments free from racial harassment and targeting by peers and school staff,” said Renuka Rege, policy advisor for Texas Appleseed’s Education Justice Project. “Unfortunately, BISD has created the opposite, pushing students of color out of school through pervasive racial slurs by peers and indifference from school staff, and persistent racial targeting by the SRO that results in disciplinary alternative school placement and arrest.
I’ve been told over and over that Fannin County has its own laws, that they run things differently than other counties. Brilliant’s experience in the Bonham school district would only get worse as he began seventh grade at LH Rather Junior High School, according to several other incidents described in the civil rights complaint. The document describes how Abbott followed Brilliant and other kids of color around at a football game in October 2022, forbidding them from leaving the bleachers. Abbott even pulled another kid of color out of the bathroom while he was using it.
“I told them all of you are very sick people to use Brilliant’s wanting to be a normal kid as a plea bargaining tool. There’s no way he is going to plead guilty for something that he didn’t do.” He ended up attending DAEP where every day he spent nearly seven hours straight in front of an online learning program called Edgenuity. According to the complaint, there were only two instructors for grades six to 12; not enough for the students to have P.E. or to get assistance with different subjects. That was a problem for C.J. who is diagnosed with dyslexia and multiple mental health disorders, and needs medication that induces drowsiness.
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