21-Year-Old Woman Who Was Accused Of Stealing Air Pods While In High School Files $20 Million Civil Rights Discrimination Lawsuit

A 21-year-old woman, previously accused and later exonerated of theft allegations involving AirPods from a fellow classmate during her high school days, has initiated legal action by filing a $20 million civil rights discrimination lawsuit against the city of Naperville and two law enforcement officials.

In a lawsuit submitted on May 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, Amara Harris is seeking compensation for the emotional distress she endured during the three-year period in which she fought to prove her innocence while her case navigated through the legal process. The lawsuit also asserts that Harris, who is a black woman, was unfairly targeted by a law enforcement system that disproportionately penalizes Black students for minor offenses.

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The series of events unfolded in 2019 when Amara Harris, then a junior at Naperville North High School in suburban Chicago, discovered that her AirPods were missing. She painstakingly retraced her path back to a table in the Learning Commons, a communal area where students spent time with each other before classes would start.

Upon noticing a pair of AirPods, Amara Harris mistakenly believed they belonged to her and took them. However, upon learning that the serial number of the AirPods she had mistakenly taken matched those of another student’s, Harris quickly turned them in to the school dean.

Roughly two weeks after the incident, a school resource officer from the Naperville Police Department issued Amara Harris a citation for purportedly stealing the AirPods. Harris contested the allegation and declined to pay the $100 penalty, sparking a protracted legal dispute that culminated last year with a jury ruling in her favor, dismissing any accusations of breaching the local theft ordinance.

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“It was just very hard because I was in school with the accusation,” Harris said. “It was a shocking surprise to me that took a really huge toll on my mental state.

“I was angry. I was sad. I felt that I was targeted.”

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