Winner schools will become better places for American Indian and white students because of the settlement reached between the Winner School District and American Indian families who filed a discrimination lawsuit against the district, according to an attorney for the families.

"I feel this is a victory for the entire community of Winner, the white families and the Indian families," said Dana Hanna of Rapid City on Monday after the details of the settlement were announced.

The settlement ends a class-action civil suit filed two years ago on behalf of American Indian students who accused the school district of discriminatory practices in dealing with student discipline issues. At that time, the 10 students named as plaintiffs were students or former students of the Winner School District.

One of those was Sam Antoine, now 17 and a student at Winner High School.

Lavina Milk of Winner can still remember the October day in 2002 when she witnessed her 12-year-old grandson, Sam, being taken out of the Winner Middle School in handcuffs and loaded in a police car.

"They took Sam to jail because he got in a push fight with a white boy," Milk said. The school did not contact Milk who has raised Sam since he was an infant.

Sam was taken to court where the family was told he could be charged as a delinquent and be sent away until he was 18, Milk recalled. The white boy was not taken to court.

"That scared us," Milk said. "I'd seen them do that to other kids."

Sam was a quiet boy who had never caused any trouble, his grandmother said. Middle school was hectic for him, she said.

When the white students started calling him "bad names," it wore him down, Milk said.

"That's what started it," she said.

Sam was given probation and community service for his behavior, Milk said. He has had not trouble in school since then.

A mother of five, Milk did not finish high school, but has always valued education.

One of her children graduated from Winner High Schools, the others attended Marty Indian School and Todd County High School.

"It's important for my grandkids to be in school," she said. "They all realize that education is something really important."

Milk is very proud of her grandson because he was willing to have his name attached to the lawsuit.

Charlene LaPointe of Mission worked as a liaison between the families involved in the lawsuit and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The settlement is exiting, she said.

"We didn't really expect to get as much as we did," LaPoint said. "It pleases me that our youth will be protected from the school-to prison pipeline."

Many of the incidents that landed American Indian students in the court system at Winner were just "normal things" that adolescent kids do, according to Cindy Young, tribal education director for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

"It's unfair for a kid to be given a criminal record when there are other ways of handling it," Young said.

Young estimates that between nine and 15 percent of Winner's more than 800 students are American Indian.

Former Winner students are still serving time in the juvenile justice system because of discipline incidents, she said.

"I would have liked compensation to help them get an education," Young said.

Hanna said the suit's intention was never to advocate that American Indian students not be punished for misconduct.

During mediation which involved the families of the students, attorneys, school administrators, school board members and attorneys, all parties decided not to waste energies and time in blaming anyone else for the problem, but to focus on the problem and fix it, Hanna said.

The Winner School District has agreed to change the handling of discipline issues and work with American Indian parents and others to improve graduation rates and improve the school climate for Indian students.

The school district's efforts will be monitored by outside agencies and a parent group. The district will also hire someone to serve as a go-between for American Indian families and school officials

The district will also pay $100,000 in attorney's fees for the plaintiffs, only a small portion of the costs.

"We never fought for damages," said Catherine Kim, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. "From our perspective any money spent should be used to remedy the situation."

The families were represented by the national American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of South Dakota and Hanna. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe helped with family expenses for court appearances.

The school district has denied any wrongdoing in the treatment of American Indian students, but the district was committed to the spirit of the mediation, Kim said.

It is undeniable that the graduation rate for American Indian students in Winner is poor, there are higher rates of transfers and dropouts, she said.

The school district's willingness to mediate a solution is an indication of its desire to improve the educational climate for American Indian students at Winner, Kim said.

The Winner School District entered the mediation willing to reach a resolution that would help ensure that discipline was meted out fairly, according to the district's attorney Don Knudsen of Gunderson, Palmer, Goodsell & Nelson of Rapid City.

"I think we've gone a long ways to make sure that this is accomplished," Knudsen said.

"All the parties recognize that change is not going to happen overnight," Kim said. "The goal we all have in common is seeing more of these kids graduate."

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or

andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com