After Tacoma school prohibited Native student’s regalia, district agreed to pay
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- A Lincoln High School graduate was barred from wearing tribal regalia during her ceremony.
- The student sued Tacoma Public Schools, alleging discrimination and a state law violation.
- TPS attributed the 2024 incident to a “mistake” but agreed to pay $125K to settle suit.
Tacoma Public Schools agreed to pay $125,000 to resolve allegations it violated state law and discriminated against an Indigenous student prohibited from wearing tribal regalia during her high school graduation in 2024, a document shows.
The school district recently settled a lawsuit brought by Gracie Belle Ray, a member of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska, who was barred from wearing a sacred button blanket to receive her diploma at Lincoln High School.
When The News Tribune reported in June that the case was resolved and dismissed, the school district declined to reveal the financial term of the settlement “out of respect for the (Ray) family.” An attorney representing Ray also declined.
In response, The News Tribune filed a public records request and subsequently obtained a copy of the May 5 settlement agreement. It shows TPS agreed to pay $125,000 to resolve the case while expressly denying all liability.
TPS uses taxpayer dollars to pay annually into a large Washington public schools risk pool that spreads out contributing members’ legal expenses among the pool.
The district attributed the graduation ceremony incident to “misunderstandings and miscommunications,” according to court records in the case. Lincoln High’s principal was unaware of the blanket’s significance, TPS said, believing it to be simply a cape unaccompanied by or unattached to a graduation gown. Ray’s attorneys disputed that the principal didn’t know.
Signed in to state law in 2020, The Right to Tribal Regalia Act forbids school districts and public schools from prohibiting student members of a federally recognized tribe from donning objects of Native American cultural significance along with or attached to a gown at graduation ceremonies or related school events.
In the aftermath, TPS took steps to “strengthen awareness and support regarding the wearing of tribal regalia at graduation ceremonies,” including implementing additional training, a district spokesperson previously said.
The red-and-black blanket was gifted to Ray by the Nisqually Tribe. While she couldn’t wear it, other graduating students donned culturally significant grass skirts, leis, sashes and stoles, according to the lawsuit filed in December 2024. The school district said those students weren’t authorized to wear grass skirts or leis, but some were permitted to wear sashes or stoles for school-related activities.
District officials expressed regret for the incident in a written apology to Ray, court records show.
“The button blanket was a sacred piece of regalia because it is a living connection to my ancestors,” Ray said in a court filing last year.
