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Kelly and Ryan Bullett filed a lawsuit July 23 on behalf of their two children against Park City School District and Jill Gildea.
Gildea served as superintendent for the district for six years and retired in 2024.
The Bulletts allege their kids, who are African American and now 14 and 17 years old, faced discrimination and harassment while attending Ecker Hill Middle School and Treasure Mountain Junior High from 2021 to 2023.
According to the 3rd District Court lawsuit, one child experienced at least four instances of harassment based on race; the other child at least 17 incidents. They include other students calling the kids racial slurs.
The lawsuit alleges the district showed “deliberate indifference” to reports of race-based harassment and the failure to take action “enabled future race-based assaults.”
Court documents say both children attended therapy and suffered extreme emotional distress due to the racial discrimination, including anxiety, fear and depression.
The lawsuit also cites a federal investigation that found over 180 incidents of harassment in the district from 2021 to 2023. The Bulletts and their two children were part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights anonymous investigation.
The office found the district did not “take effective steps to eliminate a hostile environment based on race . . . including by not investigating all allegations of race-based . . . harassment.”
The district signed an agreement to resolve the investigation in March 2024. It agreed to revise harassment policies and procedures, provide individual remedies for students and implement a plan to educate students and parents on reporting harassment.
The Bulletts are seeking compensation exceeding $300,000 and a jury trial.
The district told KPCW it does not comment on pending or imminent litigation. Gildea did not respond to KPCW’s request for comment sent to an email address at Colorado Early Colleges, where she is the CEO.
