A Black high school student who left a Colorado public charter school after he says white students repeatedly harassed and threatened him because of his race has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the school and top officials who he alleges failed to intervene.
Jaylen Davis was a 16-year-old sophomore at Addenbrooke Classical Academy in Lakewood, Colorado, in 2025 when white students began making racial remarks and mocking him with racial stereotypes during school days, according to his lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Colorado and obtained by Atlanta Black Star.
Davis claims the students also touched him and his hair without his consent.
In one alleged incident, white students showed him a video of a character in a Burger King hat who shouted, “Throw the ni**** off the plane,” then later wore Burger King hats to class and acted out the scene in front of him.
One white student gave Davis a stress ball shaped like a monkey, while another told Davis he would “return to” Kentucky Fried Chicken when he died, the complaint says.
Another white student asked Davis whether he “sagged,” a term referencing wearing pants low on the hips to expose underwear, which the lawsuit says, “is associated with Black culture.”
Davis, who was a good student with no disciplinary problems, found the racial comments and actions “unwelcome, offensive and threatening,” the lawsuit says.
Between January and April 2025, Davis and his mother, Jozette, each complained multiple times to Addenbrooke Principal John Byrne and Executive Director Ric Netzer, both of whom are White, asking them to stop the harassment and bullying.
Neither official investigated their complaints or took any action to protect Jaylen, the lawsuit claims, despite school district policies requiring them to do so.
“Essentially, what they did, they protected the interests of the white students that were doing the harassing. They were not disciplined,” Steven Murray, Davis’ attorney, told Colorado Public Radio.
The racial harassment of Davis and other Black students escalated in early May, when Davis learned about racist and threatening graffiti in the boys’ restroom.
Phrases like “Slave auction,” “Black’s for sale” and “Rape some Ni****s”, were written on the wall, according to photos taken by a white student, Jesse Jerome, and later verified in his affidavit.
The photos show Davis’ name beneath the writings, along with the names of “four other male students of color,” the lawsuit says.
The complaint alleges that after school staff discovered the graffiti, the school kept the restroom doors locked except between class periods and did not tell Davis or his mother about the graffiti or its threats of racial and sexual violence. According to the lawsuit, Davis only learned about it after Jerome showed him a photo of the graffiti on May 5, 2025.
Davis was “upset, afraid and felt threatened” after seeing his name in the graffiti and called his mother, who came to the school and took him home.
The following day, Byrne allegedly told Davis’ mom that the school had painted over the graffiti and given “the boys” “some strong words of warning,” the complaint says. But Byrne also “contradicted himself,” stating that Addenbrooke did not know who wrote the graffiti.
Ms. Davis then told Byrne that her son did not feel comfortable attending the school’s end-of-year awards ceremony where he was to receive an achievement award.
As the school year came to a close, the lawsuit says, school officials had not told Davis or his mother who wrote the graffiti, whether officials had disciplined anyone, or what steps officials had taken to prevent similar incidents or protect Davis.
As a result, Jaylen and his mother determined that his returning to Addenbrooke Classical Academy that fall “was neither safe nor reasonable.”
Because the family had no car and “no other school was within reasonable reach,” the lawsuit says, Davis enrolled in an online school his junior year, “without classmates, live instruction, sports, clubs, activities, or a social life.”
As a result, he lost the educational opportunities that come with in-person schooling, the lawsuit says, including building friendships with classmates, developing socially, strengthening his academic and extracurricular record, and forming relationships with teachers “who could have counseled and mentored him in his classwork, advised him on the college application process … and recommended him for college and employment, both at the time and in the future.”
The lawsuit claims that Addenbrooke Classical Academy violated Davis’ federal civil rights by responding with “deliberate indifference” to clear evidence of racial harassment and a hostile educational environment.
It says school officials knew about the peer harassment of Davis throughout his final semester as well as the racist and threatening graffiti naming him, and didn’t investigate it, stop it, discipline the students involved, or “take action to protect Jaylen … or to stop the harassment from continuing.”
The lawsuit claims the school violated Title IX by failing to inform Davis or his mother of the rape threat, failing to immediately investigate the graffiti, and failing to provide protective measures to shield him from further harassment.
The complaint also asserts that the school, Byrne and Netzer violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by taking no reasonable corrective action despite personally knowing about Davis’ complaints of racial harassment and, later, the racist graffiti and threats naming him. The complaint names Byrne and Netzer as individual defendants.
Both school leaders ignored the school’s written policies on investigating, reporting, correcting and preventing threats, bullying, harassment and graffiti, the lawsuit says, and “consciously acquiesced in the harassment and were deliberately indifferent to it.”
The complaint contends that Byrne and Netzer therefore cannot claim qualified immunity.
Davis, now 18, seeks a jury trial to determine compensatory damages against all the defendants for “his lost junior year of in-person education, lost extracurricular participation and the academic and career opportunities it brings, lost peer relationships and social development, and all related emotional distress, pain and suffering and future economic harm.”
He also seeks punitive damages against Byrne and Netzer “to punish their conduct and deter others.”
A joint statement from Addenbrooke Classical Academy (ACA) and Jeffco Public School District, released by the district’s communications team, said that the school had not received formal service of a lawsuit, but was aware of a press release about potential legal action against the school.
“Addenbrooke Classical Academy remains focused on maintaining a safe, supportive, and virtuous learning environment where every student can thrive. We will address this legal matter through the appropriate judicial channels,” the school wrote.
The statement also said that the school, along with Jeffco Public Schools, adheres strictly to all federal and state anti-discrimination laws.
Addenbrooke’s high school has about 200 students, of whom 57% are White, 34% are Hispanic, 5% identify as two or more races, 3% are Asian, and less than 1% are Black, according to SchoolDigger.com.
The defendants have 21 days after they receive the complaint and summons to file a response in federal district court.
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