On October 27, 2026, Relman Colfax filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the District of Columbia and current and former Langley Elementary School administrators for allegedly violating a child’s right to be free from race and national origin discrimination in school.
Relman Colfax represents the minor, Laila Loe, and her mother, Lena Loe, both pseudonyms. Laila and Lena are Asian. In the fall of 2017, Laila enrolled as a student at Langley Elementary School, a District of Columbia Public School. Laila was one of only a small number of Asian students at Langley and often the only Asian student in her class. For her first several years at Langley, Laila was happy at school and had many friends.
But in August 2023, when Laila returned to Langley for the fourth grade, a new student began to harass Laila, calling her anti-Asian racial slurs such as “Ching Chong,” telling her that “Asians are disgusting and ugly,” and tripping her, the complaint alleges. Fellow students joined in, making “slanted eye” gestures, taunting Laila in made-up “Chinese,” and mocking her for being Asian. These attacks happened in classrooms, at recess, in hallways, and sometimes in the presence of school staff, the complaint alleges. The harassment and bullying interfered with Laila’s ability to participate in educational opportunities and negatively impacted her health. Laila began to experience panic attacks before school, severe stomachaches, and other physical symptoms. She called herself “ugly” and “disgusting” and told her mother she wished she looked like the “normal kids” at school.
When she learned about the bullying, Lena begged the school to take action. Despite repeated reports of the harassment and its effects on Laila, the school allowed the bullying to continue, the complaint alleges. Langley administrators did not appropriately report the incidents, failed to discipline the bullies, and dismissed the incidents as “kids just being kids,” it is alleged, all in violation of DCPS policies.
In the face of inaction, Lena was left with no choice but to withdraw Laila from Langley in April 2024. “As long as I am alive,” Lena wrote to Defendants, Laila “will not be another sad statistic.”
In May 2024, the D.C. Office of Human Rights’ Youth Bullying Prevention Program found that Langley administrators and staff failed to comply with D.C. law by failing to properly investigate the reports of bullying and failing to report back to Lena. In July 2024, DCPS’s Comprehensive Alternative Resolution & Equity (CARE) Team found that it is more likely than not that other Langley students harassed Laila on the basis of her race and that Langley administrators and staff failed to follow the proper protocols in the face of actual knowledge of the harassment.
Laila's experiences at Langley were so traumatic that she was too afraid to attend another DCPS school because she feared being bullied there, too. Lena ultimately decided that her only option was to send Laila to live with her grandparents in Uzbekistan. Lena has not seen her own daughter in more than two years. Laila, who was born in the United States and had never lived anywhere else, is afraid to return to her home and her mother for fear of further harassment.
The complaint claims that the District of Columbia and Langley administrators discriminated against Laila based on her race and national origin in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the District of Columbia Human Rights Act.
The Relman Colfax team consists of Ellora Israni and Yiyang Wu. The Firm is co-counseling this matter with Wardenski P.C.