Carroll Independent School District has refused to negotiate with the U.S. Department of Education over civil rights complaints that could require the district to re-implement diversity trainings.
The four students who lodged the complaints with the department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) have now graduated or are no longer a part of the Southlake district. The complaints allege that students at Carroll ISD are being discriminated on the basis of their race and “LGBTQ+” identity.
The complaints cited alleged incidents where students used racial slurs and say that families at Carroll ISD must make a “cruel choice”—either submit to discrimination or leave the district’s great resources.
Carroll ISD has now responded to the complaints, with the board president and the superintendent writing, “OCR has refused to provide us written findings to evaluate and will try to enforce any resolution even if found we did nothing wrong.”
The district is requesting written findings and says that without them, they feel they are “forced to negotiate in the dark.” While analyzing similar cases, Carroll ISD says that other school districts have historically not been provided with adequate evidence, yet still required to comply with an OCR resolution.
Additionally, Carroll ISD wrote that the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo may have changed the OCR’s ability to enforce actions on the district.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund Attorney for the cases, Katrina Feldkamp, told NBC News that her clients asked the Education Department to require the district to make diversity trainings for students and staff mandatory.
After these complaints were issued, then-Mayor of Southlake John Huffman issued a statement suggesting the complaints were made in retaliation against conservative school board members who opposed DEI and critical race theory programs.
In another response to the federal complaints, U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne wrote a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Education stating the department should answer questions about the merit of the investigation.
“Based on recent actions by the Biden administration, we fear your Department will weaponize federal resources to intimidate parents who disagree with the policies of this administration,” Duyne wrote.
The Carroll ISD school board currently holds a conservative majority.
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