ITHACA (AP) - The family of a black student who complained that she was harassed by white schoolmates while her school district did little to intervene will appeal a judge's decision that a state agency had no authority to award the family $400,000, the family's lawyer said Wednesday.

State Supreme Court Judge Hon. Robert Mulvey annulled the award and dismissed the complaint brought by Amelia Kearney and her daughter Epiphany, ruling that the Division of Human Rights had no jurisdiction in the case.

The Kearneys will appeal Mulvey's ruling "to sustain the long-established authority of the Division of Human Rights to resolve these kinds of disputes in the public schools," said Raymond Schlather, who represents the family.

"More troubling is the larger issue of schoolhouse racism that has plagued this community without redress," he said.

In May, Division Administrative Law Judge Christine Marbach-Kellett ruled that Kearney and her daughter were each entitled to $200,000, calling the Ithaca City School District's policies against racial harassment and discrimination a "sham" and criticizing district staff for protecting the interests of the white male students rather than protecting a black student from racial hazing.

In a 2006 complaint, Kearney claimed that the school district failed to act promptly and effectively to protect her daughter.

The harassment included racially abusive language, tripping, spitting, KKK signs and threats of gun violence while Epiphany was a seventh-grader at DeWitt Middle School during the 2005-06 school year. She is now a junior in high school.

Marbach-Kellett also directed the district to adopt procedures to address inequity and racism in the schools.

Ithaca school officials appealed the decision in July, contending that the district was not an "education corporation" under state law and that the division did not have the authority to hear complaints against it.

Mulvey agreed, dismissing the case in a ruling filed Oct. 8.

He said he based his decision on a recent case on Long Island that dealt with the district's refusal to allow a guide dog to accompany a student to school. A state judge determined that the public school districts were municipal corporations.

The Division of Human rights plans to appeal the Long Island decision to the state Court of Appeals and will likely wrap the Kearney decision into that challenge, said spokesman Jim Mulvaney.

Mulvaney said the division's jurisdiction over school districts has been upheld in other court rulings.