(The Center Square) – The Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Education allegedly withdrew findings that an Illinois school district violated the law by separating teachers and students by race, which critics say signifies support for what constitutes illegal segregation.
According to the Southeastern Legal Foundation, which currently represents a teacher at Evanston/Skokie School District 65, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights withdrew its findings that the school district violated the law implementing racial equity activities within a week of President Joe Biden taking office.
Kim Hermann, executive director of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, said removing the letter of finding signals the Biden-Harris administration’s position on segregation when it comes to equity training and other measures intended to specifically target staff and students of color.
“It signals that under the Biden-Harris administration, mandatory racial segregation is now OK and no longer violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” Hermann previously told The Center Square.
According to the Southeastern Legal Foundation, the Office of Civil Rights issued a letter of finding in January 2021, which it has published on its website. That letter says the school district did violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act because it separated staff and students by race.
Specifically, the letter of finding said the district violated Title VI by “separating administrators in a professional development training in August 2019 into two groups on the basis of race-white and non-white-and held one cabinet meeting that similarly separated participants on the basis of race in approximately March 2019.”
The OCR’s letter continues that the district violated federal law by “offering various racially exclusive affinity groups that separated students, parents, and community members by race” and “implementing a Discipline Policy that includes an explicit direction to staff to consider a student’s race when evaluating a behavioral/disciplinary situation; and carrying out a ‘Colorism Privilege walk activity’ with students during a ‘racial equity summit’ at King Arts, in March 2019, that treated students differently and separated students solely based on their race and color.”
The Department of Education did not respond to Chalkboard’s request for comment on the letter despite acknowledging receipt.
Other national and local outlets have written about the OCR withdrawing the letter of finding, and pressed the Department of Education on the status of the investigation without receiving any answers. The department has subsequently told journalists that the investigation is still open and, therefore, not subject to public records requests.
In a statement to Fox News after the OCR withdrew the letter, a District 65 spokesperson implied that the Department of Education’s withdrawal of the letter was a direct result of the Biden administration’s equity agenda.
“In January, the proceedings were suspended by OCR pending its reconsideration of the case in light of the executive orders on racial equity issued by President Biden. At this time, there is no final decision in place,” a district spokesperson said in March 2021, according to Fox News.
Other outlets have asked the Department of Education for more clarity on its position with no response. Tom Hayden, a local reporter in the Evanston/Skokie area, reported on the OCR’s reversal as President Joe Biden took office.
Hayden wrote in his Substack that when he asked the Department of Education about it, a spokesperson replied: “The Office for Civil Rights can confirm that there is an open investigation (case #: 05-19-1395) of the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We do not comment on open investigations.”
Hayden also points out that the sudden reversal was used by the Mountain States Legal Foundation to make a point in an amicus brief in the affirmative action in college admissions case before the Supreme Court in 2022.
The brief says that the letter of finding shows how race has captured the attention of schools.
“Although this Court’s precedents have attempted to curtail the misuse of race in American educational institutions, the trend is toward more racially preferential conduct, not less,” the brief said about the OCR’s now-withdrawn letter.
Hermann, executive director of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, previously told Chalkboard News that everything the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 does considers race.
“From Pre-K through eighth grade, critical race theory is baked into every single aspect of education in District 65,” Hermann previously told Chalkboard. “If you look at the curriculum and the teacher training in District 65, you will be hard-pressed to find a single subject for a single grade from pre-K to eighth that doesn’t include critical race theory.”
Evanston Township High School District 202, which serves the region’s high school students, gained national attention last year for “restricting” an AP Calculus course to students “who identify as Black,” Hayden wrote in a 2023 Substack post.
“Equity politics aside, I’ve been wondering – is this legal?” Hayden asked. “What does ‘legal’ even mean in this context? Who has authority to take action if this is not legal?”
• This story initially published at Chalkboard News, a K-12 news site that, like The Center Square, is also published by Franklin News Foundation.
