‘Can’t Live Like This’: Black Nebraska Teen’s White Classmate Placed a Knee on His Neck and Asked Him If He Could Breathe; Parents Forced to Withdraw Him from School and Leave Town

The parents of a Black teenager decided to move their son from a Nebraska town after learning he was exposed to a relentless racist environment at his predominately white high school.

Lee and Brittny Graham told the Lincoln Journal Star they moved their family from California to the small town of Wayne, Nebraska, in April 2023 in search of a small, close-knit community.

It was only shortly after they settled in that their dreams of making Wayne their long-term home soured.

Soon after enrolling their son into a local high school, they learned that his new friends and classmates began racially antagonizing him.

According to the Grahams, the bullying began when one student called their son the N-word. Others soon joined in and started calling him the slur daily and making offensive gestures, like making monkey noises and calling him a baboon.

After making the football team, he started hearing the N-word at games from players on opposing teams.

The Grahams said their son told them of the bullying but asked them not to intervene, hoping he could resolve the issues himself.

However, the incident that was the final straw happened in November 2023 during his P.E. class. He was lying on the floor after running sprints when a classmate placed a knee on his neck and asked him if he could breathe, openly mocking the dreadful way George Floyd was murdered in 2020.

“Finally, our son came to us and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I need you to get involved. I can’t live like this,’” Lee Graham said . “It was about to break him.”

The Grahams’ son was only enrolled at the school for one semester. They withdrew their son from school at the start of the second semester in January 2024, and he completed the rest of the school year from home.

After considering whether to enroll him in a different school, the Grahams ultimately decided to move from Wayne to give their son a fresh start.

“It was exhausting, heartbreaking, devastating,” Graham said. “Watching our son and hoping our son is not permanently injured emotionally and that he can process through this.”

Lee and Brittny Graham, who are white, are the adoptive parents of two Black sons. As a pastor and a nurse, they thought Wayne would be the perfect town where their careers would thrive and they could create interpersonal bonds in a 6,000-person municipality. However, knowing the area lacked diversity, they were adamant about questioning school officials to determine whether the district would make their son feel welcome.

Administrators reassured them that he would flourish at the school but did little to address the racist incidents when their son reported them.

Wayne Community Schools Superintendent Mark Lenihan said the district was unable to take action since there were rarely witnesses or evidence to prove the incidents happened.

There was one instance when a teacher overheard the students calling the Grahams’ son racial slurs. The teacher never reported the incident to administrators and merely decided to write the student a letter of apology.

The Grahams said the letter was a nice gesture but denounced the teacher’s failure to stop the harassment as it was happening or to report it.

The family finally moved in May, but not before speaking to Lenihan directly about how the school system plans to handle racist and discriminatory behavior when it happens.

Lenihan said the district plans to implement more extensive training for all faculty to teach them how to observe school policies and report bullying and harassment. Officials also plan to engage students in productive discussions on social-emotional wellness, racism, and harassment.

”I want to make sure that he continues to be diligent,” Lee Graham said of Lenihan. “I want to make sure that it wasn’t just to appease a family that had left. I want to make sure that the entire staff and leadership of Wayne schools is dedicated for years and years to come to eradicate this.”

According to Census demographic data from 2020, about 90 percent of Wayne residents are white, while only 2 percent are Black. During the 2022-23 school year, the district had just under 1,000 students enrolled in all its schools. Of all those students, 763 were white, 181 were Hispanic, and just 16 were Black.

The Grahams moved to the South to be closer to family members. While racism is still prevalent in that part of the country, they say their son is currently enrolled in a more diverse school district that shows less tolerance for it.

‘Can’t Live Like This’: Black Nebraska Teen’s White Classmate Placed a Knee on His Neck and Asked Him If He Could Breathe; Parents Forced to Withdraw Him from School and Leave Town