The report cites several incidents that took place during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, the summer of 2010 and the fall of 2010.

In one of those incidents, the contents of the girl's backpack were smashed and a racial slur was written with her deodorant on the sidewalk outside the Saranac Lake Middle School. School officials were told about what happened shortly thereafter, but the racial slur wasn't washed off until eight days after the incident, setting off a firestorm of criticism against the school district.

The girl, now in the eigth grade at Saranac Lake Middle School, is being represented in the case by A.J. Bosman, a Rome-based lawyer who is director of the Children's Rights Initiative, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal services to indigent children.

"The allegations and the factual background were that she was being victimized," Bosman said Friday, "both at a level of bullying in the sense that that's what happened, and that she was being subjected to racist conduct that was not being addressed by the school district."

Over the past year, school officials say they have taken steps to "change the culture" of the school district. The school board implemented a new harassment, hazing and bullying policy and the the district hired an outside group to put on a series of diversity training sessions for teachers, administrators and school board members.