Michelle Obama's brother and his wife settle racial bias lawsuit against University School of Milwaukee
Michelle Obama's brother and sister-in-law, Craig and Kelly Robinson, have settled and agreed to dismiss a 2022 lawsuit alleging their children were unfairly barred from attending the University School of Milwaukee.
The Robinsons alleged their two sons were denied re-enrollment to the private school in retaliation for taking issue with allegedly racist school curriculum and treatment of students of color.
In response, USM's lawyers said the school has the authority to make enrollment decisions. Its Head of School, Steve Hancock, said in a letter that the Robinson children were denied enrollment not because of their parents' specific concerns, but because of the way their parents communicated those concerns.
The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice on Tuesday, records from the Milwaukee County Circuit Court show. That means the case is permanently dismissed and cannot be brought back to court.
No details about the Oct. 8 settlement have been made public.
"The Robinson Children were model students at USM. Both parties regret that the disagreements between the Robinsons and the school resulted in the Robinson children no longer being members of the USM community. The parties will not be commenting further on this matter," reads a joint statement from the Robinsons and USM.
Lawsuit hinged on Robinson family's allegations of racist curriculum, treatment of students of color
Robinsons cited 'broader pattern' of poor treatment of students of color
The two Robinson children began attending the University School of Milwaukee, a private school in River Hills, in 2016. The Robinsons' lawsuit alleged the school made a "vindictive and improper decision" when it decided against renewing their sons' enrollment contracts for the 2021-22 school year.
The legal complaint alleged USM decided to "punish two model students in retaliation against their parents for raising valid concerns about USM's treatment of its students of color and other underrepresented stakeholders in the school."
The Robinson parents said they began taking issue with the school curriculum during the COVID-19 pandemic, when their sons learned virtually at home. They said some classroom assignments were offensive to people of color, Indigenous people and other underrepresented students, and in response brought their concerns to the school administration.
The parents alleged the school promoted its commitment to diversity, but failed to take steps to protect students of color from repeated instances of racism directed at them by white students.
"We heard from a number of people and realized that our situation wasn't unique, and that this was a pattern of behavior," Craig Robinson said in a 2022 interview with the Journal Sentinel . "And once we heard that, then we felt a responsibility to do something more because we would feel awful if we just packed up and left."
School said Robinson parent's communications were the issue
In a pretrial report, USM's lawyers wrote that Kelly Robinson "decided she did not like the middle school curriculum," and "neither respected nor trusted the middle school teachers and administrators."
The school told Kelly Robinson that she had engaged in "disrespectful and deflating" communications with the school, court documents show.
During 170 days of the 2020-21 school year, USM's lawyers say Kelly Robinson sent the school 135 emails and 350 pages of complaints. As a result, the school spent "hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars," according to the pretrial report.
"Eventually, Mr. Hancock decided it was not in the school's best interest to continue to devote resources to the Robinsons. USM's relationship with them clearly was irretrievably broken. It was time to move on," lawyers for the school wrote.
Cleo Krejci covers K-12 education and workforce development as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. at or follow her on Twitter . For more information about Report for America, visit jsonline.com/rfa .
