On Dec. 2, the Washington State Supreme Court declined to hear the Mercer Island School District’s appeal of a finding that the district was liable for discrimination in a case of peer-on-peer racial harassment that occurred in 2011 at Islander Middle School.

The denial of the district’s petition for review ended a years-long quest to overturn a ruling that the district had been “deliberately indifferent” in its handling of a student’s complaint of racial discrimination.

“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court denied of review, but we do respect the Court’s decision,” Mercer Island Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano said in a statement. “We stand by our belief that the District acted appropriately.”

The case’s procedural history dates back to 2012, when a civil suit was brought against the Mercer Island School District by Robin and Nicholas Wilt, who said their son was harassed by a fellow student at IMS. An administrative law judge (ALJ) found that the district’s mishandling of a student’s complaint of racial harassment imputed liability for the discriminatory behavior to the district. MISD chose to appeal that ruling in King County Superior Court, and in December 2013, some five months after hearing oral arguments, Judge James Rogers overturned the ALJ’s ruling in part, finding that although the district had been negligent, that its actions had not risen to the level of deliberate indifference.

The parents appealed that decision, and in April 2015, Division One of the Washington State Court of Appeals affirmed the ALJ’s original ruling, reinstating the finding of deliberate indifference to racial discrimination against the district in its handling of the student’s complaint.

The parents have filed a suit for damages against the district in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle.