Kendrick Lamar Video Costs Town $100,000

The town of Vernon, Connecticut, is expected to soon settle a $100,000 lawsuit after a student “sustained mental and emotional pain and suffering” from a teacher’s decision to play a music video from rapper Kendrick Lamar in class. The incident subsequently led the student to transfer schools.

The lawsuit, filed in early 2022, alleges that on February 12, 2020, a social studies teacher, identified as Mr. Owens, at Vernon Center Middle School showed the class the documentary Hip Hop: Songs that Shook America, which featured Lamar’s 2015 music video for the song “Alright.” The ending scene of the black-and-white video shows a police officer shooting an imaginary finger gun at the rapper who is on top of a light post. Lamar bleeds through the air as he falls.

The student, a minor at the time, brought the legal action through his father, a now-recently retired police officer in the neighboring town of Manchester, Connecticut.

The lawsuit claims that “the video depicted police officers as murderers and contained other shockingly violent scenes and controversial statements about police officers.” It also asserts that the teacher was aware that the plaintiff’s father was an officer and that the student had a diagnosed learning disorder.

The complaint states: “Asst. Superintendent Testa found that Mr. Owens violated Vernon [Board of Education] BOE policy and the Connecticut Code of Professional Responsibility for Teachers by showing the video to the plaintiff and his classmates,” and that the teacher had been “reprimanded on two prior occasions for showing videos, or portions of videos, in the classroom that were considered ‘forbidden’ pursuant to procedure.”

The plaintiff lists his damages as sustaining “emotional and psychological injuries and distress, some or all of which may be permanent in nature, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, shock, confusion, sadness, feeling unsafe, and social withdrawal, some or all of which necessitate psychological treatment and counseling and if unresolved, pose the risk of severe mental distress.”

Physical and social injuries were also listed, including nausea, headaches, and “stigma associated with being the son of a police officer,” claiming that it led “friends and others to dissociate with him.” The complaint states that some of these injuries “necessitated that the Plaintiff change schools.”

On Tuesday, town council members approved the settlement, which is expected to be approved by the board of education on Monday.

Newsweek has left phone messages for the Town of Vernon and Vernon Center Middle School requesting comment on Friday afternoon. Newsweek sent an email to Superintendent Joseph Macary and several town council members on Friday. Newsweek alsoreached out to the plaintiff’s lawyer via email on Friday evening.