Utah High School Basketball Coach Mocked Black Teen for Her Hair, Said ‘Money Is White People Problem’ Because African-Americans Are Broke, Lawsuit Says

Ebony Davis was a junior at Layton High in Utah in 2022, a rising star on the varsity basketball team who says she had good grades and was enjoying her high school experience. But, according to a lawsuit she filed last month, that experience was marred by a barrage of racist, demeaning remarks she endured from other students and from the school’s former basketball coach. In her complaint, Davis, who is Black and of African-American and Hispanic descent, says she was regularly called the N-word by her white peers while walking to class and often had students ask her for “an N-word pass” so they could use the racial slur without recourse. Students also touched her hair without permission, and one student turned off the lights in a classroom and shouted, “Oh, where did Ebony go?!” she alleges. Ebony Davis (Facebook/Ebony Davis) Meanwhile, her basketball coach, Robert Reisbeck, who was also the school’s athletics director, regularly directed statements at Davis that were “racially charged and demeaning,” she claims. Some comments focused on her appearance, such as when Reisbeck allegedly asked the team to line up from tallest to shortest and commented in front of her teammates that Davis’ hair did...