BENNINGTON, Vt. (AP) – School officials are defending their response to racist remarks alleged to have been made by a sixth-grade student last fall.

“What more would you want to do to an elementary school child?” Superintendent Wesley Knapp asked. “He’s already shown extreme remorse, apologized to the student, apologized to the class and received an in-school suspension. I think the next step up might be crucifixion.”

The comment came after a local parent presented a letter to the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union Board saying her child had been the target of the racist remarks, and that the school had not done enough to respond.

The letter acknowledged that the school’s principal spoke with students about harassment, but the woman expressed doubts that the lesson was effective.

At a meeting this past week, the School Board agreed with the mother’s suggestion that it reconsider an update to its harassment policy that would have allowed any witness to an act of harassment to file a complaint – except for the parent of a student.

It voted unanimously to ask its policy committee to change the policy to allow parents to file a complaint. Policy committee members said the change would have to be reviewed by a lawyer.

Knapp said he thought the woman’s criticisms directed at him were unfair. He said the incident was handled first by the school’s principal and that he had not heard about it until sometime later. He added that the woman declined an invitation to meet with the principal and him.

Officials said they hoped to complete revisions to the harassment policy in time for teachers to be trained about the changes before classes begin in September.

Cynthia Brownell, chairwoman of the School Board, said it would look further into the woman’s complaints.

“We appreciate people coming to us with problems, and we’re going to research it and not just drop it. But it’s too early for us to make any comment,” she said.