Lawyers for students say FBI finds civil rights violations at schools in Southlake, Texas

The U.S. Department of Education is trying to negotiate with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, over four students’ civil rights complaints in a move three education rights experts say is a sign the department is backing up the students’ racist and anti-LGBTQ allegations has discrimination.

The Education Department’s Civil Rights Enforcement Division described the next steps in its investigation in a letter Monday to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represents the students. The development comes three years after the civil rights organization filed federal complaints on behalf of students who said Carroll officials failed to protect them from harassment.

The four students, all of whom have either graduated or left the district, told the Department of Education that they were subjected to a barrage of racist and homophobic slurs and comments during their years at Carroll. A student said he suffered retaliation after reporting racial harassment to administration. Another said he considered suicide after classmates repeatedly mocked him about his sexual orientation; His family said the district failed to address the bullying.

On Monday, the Department of Education told the NAACP Legal Defense Fund that it had contacted Carroll County officials to begin negotiating a resolution agreement for the four complaints – a step the agency took only after determining civil rights violations of students were injured, said Katrina Feldkamp, ​​an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

The Southlake school system — which made national headlines in 2021 after conservative parents rejected a comprehensive plan to prevent discrimination — now has 90 days to reach an agreement with the Department of Education on the steps it will take to address it The problems identified will be addressed by student complaints, experts said.

Angela Jones, a Black mother of a former Carroll student who was among those who complained to the Department of Education, said she had advocated for years for changes to protect minority students in the affluent North Texas school district. But she was rebuffed by school board members and conservative parents who accused her and others of trying to force far-left political ideology into classrooms. Jones said she and her family felt vindicated by the Department of Education’s finding.

“You tell the district, ‘You didn’t do it alone, so we’re going to come in and give you some recommendations on how you can do it differently,'” Jones said. “I hope they take it seriously, reevaluate it and negotiate.”

An Education Department spokesman said the agency does not comment on pending cases. Carroll Superintendent Lane Ledbetter and school board President Cam Bryan did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The local debate over how to combat racism in Carroll schools became a national symbol of the struggles over race, gender and sexuality that have gripped the country, and was featured on the NBC News podcast series “Southlake” in 2021. presented.

The city’s fight began in 2018 after a viral video of white high school students chanting the N-word spurred dozens of Carroll parents and students to tell stories of discrimination. After the outcry, the school board appointed a committee of volunteers, including Jones, to develop strategies to address the problem. The result of their work, the Cultural Competence Action Plan, called for, among other things, mandatory diversity training for teachers and students and changes to the student handbook that explicitly prohibit harassment based on race, gender and sexual orientation. Then came the backlash.

After the plan was released in the summer of 2020, conservative parents and activists — outraged by what they portrayed as anti-white and anti-American indoctrination — formed a political action committee called Southlake Families PAC that promised to defeat the diversity plan and improve “Judeo-Christian Values” in the school district. They raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support a number of hardline conservative candidates, launched attack ads accusing their opponents of being radical leftists, and won majority control of the Carroll School Board in November 2021.

Two weeks later, the Department of Education launched its first investigation into student complaints. The total number of civil rights investigations in the district would eventually grow to eight. The status of the other four open cases is unclear.

The investigation sets the stage for a potential conflict between local voters who opposed the diversity plan and federal officials tasked with enforcing federal civil rights laws. Now that the Department of Education has begun the process of negotiating a resolution with the district on four of the complaints, the federal agency could end up requiring Carroll to implement some of the same types of diversity and inclusion programs that Southlake voters rejected in the landslide election in recent years.

In a video address to the community after the investigation was announced in 2021, Ledbetter, Carroll’s superintendent, said the district would “absolutely comply” if the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) ordered changes. But some local activists have called on the district to push back against what they see as federal overreach. They have spread unfounded theories that the federal investigation was launched in retaliation against conservatives who opposed critical race theory.

U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, a Republican whose district includes Southlake, wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in November 2021, co-signed by Republican Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas, expressing her support Expressed fears that the Biden administration would “use federal funds as a weapon to intimidate parents who disagree with this administration’s policies.”

In a statement four months later, an Education Department spokesman said the agency’s work was “in no way retaliatory and OCR serves as a neutral expert witness in complaints.”

In the years since taking control of the school board, members backed by the Southlake Families PAC have made changes that diversity advocates say have made the district less inclusive. The board voted in 2022 to remove language from the student handbook that expressly prohibits discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation and religion. And this week, the board approved a resolution opposing the Biden administration’s decision to extend Title IX protections to LGBTQ students.

Ledbetter and school board members did not respond to a question from NBC News about whether they planned to work with the Department of Education to reach a voluntary agreement.

W. Scott Lewis, managing partner at TNG, a consulting firm that advises school districts on compliance with federal civil rights laws, said the agency could do so if Carroll fails to reach a voluntary agreement with the Office for Civil Rights to how to deal with discrimination impose changes that Carroll would have to abide by or risk losing federal funding or a Justice Department investigation.

Another approach the district could take, Lewis said: Carroll could challenge the Department of Education’s findings in court. “It hasn’t typically been very successful,” Lewis said.

Feldkamp, ​​the attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said her clients have asked the Department of Education to require Carroll to implement many of the policies included in the Cultural Competence Action Plan, including mandatory diversity training for students and staff.

“We need to send a message that we will not tolerate black and brown students being pushed out of school, that it is unacceptable for racism and homophobia to prevail, and that our public schools are meant to be educational institutions where everyone Students can do this. “I feel supported and can develop,” said Feldkamp.

On Wednesday, two community activist groups that joined the civil rights complaints — the Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition and Cultural & Racial Equity for Every Dragon — sent a letter to Carroll officials calling on the district to “agree to remedial measures that are consistent with the law.” against the hostility”. Environment” and “Fulfill your responsibility to protect all students.”

Raven Rolle, a 23-year-old Black Carroll graduate and member of the Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition, said it didn’t take a federal investigation for the district to listen to current and former students like her who have shared stories of harassment.

“Hopefully it sets a precedent for the children who are there now and the children who will be there years from now that something like this will never happen again, and if it does, it will be dealt with appropriately,” Rolle said.

Mia Mariani, a 19-year-old student who lives in Pittsburgh, was among former Carroll students notified this week that the Department of Education is taking action in response to her complaint about anti-LGBTQ bullying at Carroll.

Mariani, whose story was detailed on the “Southlake” podcast, was bombarded on social media with a barrage of vulgar messages from classmates making fun of her gender identity during a social studies class in the spring of 2022. After reporting the abuse, she secretly recorded her meeting with the principal, who argued that the boys who molested her “just wanted to discuss politics.” After her parents filed a complaint about the school’s handling of the situation, senior Carroll administrators investigated the matter and concluded that Mariani’s complaint “did not meet the criteria necessary to constitute bullying.”

Now it appears that the Department of Education has found evidence that their rights have been violated.

Mariani said she was surprised when she received the news on Monday. She has worked to continue her experience at Southlake, she said, but hopes her case leads to change for current and future students.

“Any change for her,” Mariani said, “is healing for me.”