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A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a $1 million jury award to a Latino man who endured 3 1/2 years of racial threats and harassment at a rural high school in New York.

The three-judge panel of the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City upheld the award against the Pine Plains Central School District after rejecting the district鈥檚 appeal.

The judges said the $1 million in compensatory damages to the former student, Anthony Zeno, was an appropriate amount given that school officials were aware of the ongoing harassment but did not take effective action to stop it.

鈥淲e conclude there was sufficient evidence in the record to support the jury鈥檚 finding that the District鈥檚 responses to student harassment of Anthony amounted to deliberate indifference to discrimination,鈥� Judge Denny Chin wrote for the unanimous panel.

In his freshman year of high school, Mr. Zeno transferred from Long Island to Stissing Mountain High School in Pine Plains, New York. The school had minority attendance of less than five percent, and many students used Zeno鈥檚 ethnic heritage as a basis to taunt, harass, menace, and physically assault him.

鈥淗is peers made frequent pejorative references to his skin tone, calling him a 鈥榥igger鈥� nearly every day,鈥� Judge Chin said.

鈥淭hey also referred to him as 鈥榟omey鈥� and 鈥榞angster,鈥� while making reference to his 鈥榟ood鈥� and 鈥榝ake rapper bling bling.鈥� 鈥�

Chin continued: 鈥淗e received explicit threats as well as implied threats, such as references to lynching.鈥�

In his sophomore year, the threats intensified. According to the opinion, halfway through the year he told school officials: 鈥淚鈥檓 tired of this 鈥� I can鈥檛 take any more of it, I have to stop this 鈥� This has been going on forever.鈥�

Finally, in his senior year, rather than continue to face the harassment, Zeno left the school and earned an equivalency degree. He also filed a lawsuit against the school district for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars recipients of federal funding from engaging in racial discrimination.

To prevail, Zeno鈥檚 lawyer had to prove that district officials were 鈥渄eliberately indifferent鈥� to the ongoing racial harassment of students over whom they exerted control.

School officials said they took appropriate action, disciplining those responsible and initiating programs to foster a more accepting environment at the high school. But a jury found that they hadn鈥檛 done enough.

Zeno was deprived of a supportive, scholastic environment free of racism and harassment, the appeals court said.

Lawyers for the district argued that Zeno had proved no more than a 鈥済arden variety鈥� type of damage case. They said the $1 million award was excessive.

The appeals court disagreed. 鈥淎nthony was not an adult losing sleep due to workplace stress,鈥� Chin said. 鈥淩ather, he was a teenager being subjected 鈥� at a vulnerable point in his life 鈥� to 3 1/2 years of racist, demeaning, threatening, and violent conduct.鈥�

The judge added: 鈥淕iven the severity, duration, and egregiousness of Anthony鈥檚 unchecked harassment, his [$1 million] award was not outside the range of permissible decisions.鈥�