Last year, Russell Dickerson, III, 20, filed a lawsuit against the Aberdeen School District, charging they did little to stop the racial and anti-gay bullying he endured from 2003-2009, and now the Seattle man has been awarded $100,000 in a settlement with school officials.

Russell said throughout junior high and high school he was taunted with racial epithets, spit on, and mocked. His peers would leave racist notes in his backpack and they even created a website to tease him about being black and suggest he was gay. When three students pushed him to the floor and smashed a raw egg on his head, Russell said only one was punished.

Later, in  high school, he said someone posted a fake picture in the locker room of him kissing a man, which caused students to pick on him by pinching and fondling his chest, and he was also ridiculed for his physical appearance. Russell said when he went to the assistant principal about the issue he was told  he should change his style of clothing to avoid being teased.

Despite numerous complaints, Russell and his parents say the bullying continued, even after a no-contact order was issued against one of his harassers. In response to Russell’s claims, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington said Aberdeen school officials failed to do their job.

“Public school officials must be held accountable when they fail to meet their responsibility to act decisively when a student is subjected to harassment by his peers,” Sarah Dunne, ACLU’s legal director, said in a statement.

“This settlement sends a message to school districts statewide to take strong action as soon as they learn that a student is being bullied.”

Speaking on the settlement, Russell said he learned from his parents to never give up.

“You should fight for your rights – you don’t just walk away.”

A man who apparently takes the dearth of black superheroes a little too seriously—and decided to become a real-life superhero himself—has been arrested for pepper spray assault. The 23-year-old Seattle native who operates under the guise of Phoenix Jones says he was simply trying to do what superheroes do—fight crime. In this particular instance, Jones claims he was trying to break up a street fight between several men.

The altercation was caught on tape because Jones, along with a second superhero, Ghost, were accompanied by videographer Ryan McNamee, and Milwaukee-based writer Tea Krulos, who is writing a book about real-life superheroes.

Police maintain that the footage does not indicate a fight; therefore there was no cause for Jones to spray the individuals. The police report states that Jones “has had a history of injecting himself in these incidents. Recently there have been increased reports of citizens being pepper sprayed by (Jones) and his group.” Additionally, the report says that although Jones, the most prominent member of the vigilante group of crime stoppers springing up in the city, “has been advised to observe and report incidents to (police), he continues to try to resolve things on his own.”

By Alexis Garrett Stodghill

Lottery winner Tyrone Curry still lives in the same modest Seattle home he shared with his wife and extended family when he won $3.4 million in the lottery. He drives the same car, and even has the same job, five years later. After “cleaning up” in the Washington State Lottery, Tyrone kept right on cleaning — the halls of Evergreen High School that is — where he has worked for 40 years.

He continues sweeping, emptying the garbage and raising the American flag every morning in daily rituals that benefit the community he is central to. The only difference is the additional  resources at Curry’s disposal to further enhance students’ lives.  And with true dedication to his school, Tyrone will use his lottery winnings to make the Evergreen High property even better. MSNBC.com reports:

Five generations have grown up around him since he came home from war and started taking care of kids. Budget cuts eliminated Tyrone’s teaching assistant’s job 35 years ago, so he stayed on as a janitor. He never went looking for another classroom because he found a better one — and a second job — out back.

You see, Tyrone isn’t just the Evergreen High School custodian; he also coaches the track team. And that’s where he decided to splurge with his lottery winnings.

“I’m getting excited!” he says, watching runners circling toward him on the school’s old cinder track. This summer he’s building them a new one. State-of-the-art. Cost him 40,000 bucks.

“I’m not done,” he chuckles. Tyrone buys more lottery tickets every week. “Our tennis coach, she has, like, a hundred kids tryin’ to play on four courts.” Tyrone dreams of building more.  Doesn’t care about the odds. “Life is lucky!” he says. And when it’s not, Tyrone feels it falls to the janitor to fix it.

Not content to improve the facilities alone, Curry has taken it upon himself to help the school’s track team captain through recent misfortunes. When DeVante Botello’s mother died of a heart attack, Tyrone filled the emotional gulf with encouraging words. Curry is now taking care of the college tuition the honor student’s mother was planning to pay.

Botello doesn’t have his father in the picture, so Tyrone is taking on that role, in addition to being his coach, mentor — and hero. DeVante told “The Today Show,” “Coach is probably the most amazing man I’m ever gonna meet. He’s my hero — a real hero [...] Whatever I do with my life is gonna be in honor of Tyrone.”

Tyrone and his wife Michelle had been in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings when he hit it big. After their windfall, it would have been easy for a man who had spent much of his life serving others to choose to focus on himself. But instead he decided to give more. Does being a Vietnam veteran inspire Curry to remain committed to those under his care? He certainly doesn’t do it out of pride.

“I’m just Joe Citizen,” he told NBC’s “Today.”  He might be a regular guy, but he is doing the extraordinary. Maybe Tyrone uses his millions to help others, because of the greater emotional wealth that giving brings.

(Seattle Post Intelligencer) — The U.S. Department of Justice is launching a formal civil rights investigation of the Seattle Police Department following several high-profile violent incidents, federal officials said Thursday.  The incidents include the shooting death of a Native American carver, the stomping of a Latino suspect and the punching of an African American teenage jaywalker.  ”I want to emphasize that we have not reached any conclusions,” U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said at a news conference. “I think this gives us a great opportunity to have experts with a new set of eyes … to help us see what is going right and what can be improved.”  The announcement followed the Justice Department’s decision in January to do a preliminary review of Seattle police’s use-of–force practices. That review came after the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups called for an investigation into a possible pattern or practice of unnecessary use of force, especially against minorities.

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