When Lee and Aletta Williamson enrolled their son in Heritage Preschools, a private Christian day care in Homewood, Alabama, in 2021, he was only 2 months old. The parents expected their son would be loved and cared for in the same manner as all the other children. But two years later, the child was expelled, and the family thinks they know why and that their toddler is not to blame.
According to Atlanta Black Star, the Williamson family filed suit against the day care because they believe their son was unjustly asked to leave the facility because he is Black. Now, the parents are suing Heritage and want the truth.
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Their son was reportedly fine until he moved into a new classroom.
The child, whose name appears as JW in the suit, was rarely in trouble before he was promoted to the 2-year-old room in May 2023, AL.com reported. His new teacher, Caroline Harmon, allegedly began contacting JW’s parents with report after report about his behavior. The Williamson’s attorney, Artur Davis, told AL.com that JW was being picked on for normal toddler behavior. “These are small boys, these are literal children,” Davis said.
The teacher apparently wrote him up dozens of times in less than a month.
Per court documents, Harmon filed at least 30 behavioral complaints in three weeks. The Williamsons claim he was discriminated against because he was a Black student in a predominately white day care.
“When you take on the role of educating and training preschool children, you’re assuming a difficult task and responsibility,” Davis told AL.com. “We understand that. But when you exercise your authority one way for little white children, and you exercise your authority another way for little Black children, particularly Black boys, that’s a violation of the law.”
His mother believes he was being targeted.
Aletta Williamson told AL.com she spoke to the assistant teacher in her son’s classroom, who allegedly admitted Harmon was too harsh on JW.
The mother was distraught. “You don’t know what it felt like to hear them tell us that our job is to keep our teachers safe and the other children safe,” she told AL.com. “He’s a baby. He is a baby.”
The parents claimed in their suit that Heritage denied requests to review surveillance and did not give the parents a recommendation for occupational therapy.
Things seemingly went from bad to worse.
Heritage allegedly claimed JW was a threat to adults in the facility, and wanted to develop a new child care plan within the following two weeks. The Williamsons reportedly told the school they planned to contact an attorney because they felt JW was being discriminated against.
“At that point, we took a breath and looked at one another and we just expressed to them that we didn’t feel that he was treated fairly,” Lee Williamson told AL.com.
The school contacted the couple later that day and reportedly expelled JW due to the threat of legal action.
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The preschool denies any wrongdoing.
Heritage CEO Larry Vann sent a statement to AL.com denying all the allegations.
“Heritage Preschools has very high standards that we hold ourselves to. We take these allegations very seriously,” the statement read. “We are looking forward to the opportunity to refute the allegations contained in this filing, which is currently being addressed by our attorneys. We do not comment on pending litigation, however, we adamantly deny these allegations and we are looking forward to vindicating ourselves in the court of law.”
Due to Heritage’s religious affiliation, several of its locations are exempt from licensure and do not have regulatory inspections, AL.com reported.
