KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KMBC/CNN Newsource/WKRC) - Four parents sued the Park Hill School District in Kansas City after their children were disciplined for starting a a racist online petition.

The students created a Change.org petition called "Start Slavery Again" and the parents say the discipline violated was "freedom of speech, due process and right to education."

The lawsuit says while five students joked about and encouraged the racist online petition, only the four students who commented on the post were disciplined. Two white students who commented "I love slavery" and "I hate blacks" both got 180 days suspension. A biracial white and Asian student, who commented "I want a slave," also was suspended for 180 days. A biracial Black and Brazilian student who typed the petition was expelled.

The lawsuit goes on to say an unnamed Black student liked the petition, shared it and verbally encouraged a teammate to sign it, but was not disciplined.

"It seems like the school district has a wide range of inconsistencies in terms of how they discipline children,” diversity consultant Nicole Price said.

The parents hired her when their teens got in trouble.

“When the information first came to me, I was disheartened. I was disappointed,” she said.

Price says what happened was egregious. But she also says the students felt remorse and a 10-day suspension would have served them better.

“And so how can you then say that we're living in conjunction with our mission when you just decide to kick kids out when it gets hard to educate them,” Price said.

The lawsuit says the school culture "was infused with frequent casual use of racial and ethnic epithets and slurs." It also says coaches "only occasionally asked students to watch their language," but mostly "condoned heavily racialized interactions."

“School's responsibility is to teach us about the history of racial terror in this country. These kids had almost no insight into that,” Price said.

The attorneys asked that three of the four students get a temporary injunction so they can return to school. They also want the district to pay for damages suffered by the teens and their families.

A district spokesperson says it "took prompt, decisive action to enforce our policies prohibiting discrimination, harassment and uncivil behavior."