DALLAS — The U.S. Department of Education opened a civil rights investigation into allegations of racial and gender discrimination in Southlake schools, NBC News reported.
The federal Office for Civil Rights informed the Carroll school district — which has been at the center of an ongoing firestorm on how to handle diversity and inclusion — that it opened three investigations.
The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Dallas Morning News.
Karen Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman for Carroll ISD, confirmed to NBC News that officials are “fully cooperating with this process.”
“Our focus will always be what is best for our students as we prepare them for their next steps in their educational journey,” she said.
The affluent, mostly white district — the subject of a six-part NBC podcast — has become a symbol for what backlash against “critical race theory” looks like.
The district recently attracted national attention after an administrator advised educators to teach students about the Holocaust from “opposing” perspectives, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.
Trustees also voted to reprimand a teacher who gave one of her students a book about anti-racism, "This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work," by Tiffany Jewell. The book is a New York Times bestseller.
Last week in a video message to parents and students, Superintendent Lane Ledbetter vowed to shift his focus from uniting the city to uniting the school district. Ledbetter has been in his role less than a year.
“My job is to take care of our staff and to ensure that we’re providing a world-class education in a safe environment for our kids and our staff,” Ledbetter said in the video. “And I apologize that I’ve been distracted.”
Ledebtter’s first year as superintendent has been embroiled in controversy over the district’s proposed diversity and inclusion plan, called the Cultural Competence Action Plan. The plan — intended to make the district more inclusive for students of color — was drafted by a council of more than 60 parents, students and staff after videos of Carroll students chanting the N-word went viral in 2018 and 2019.
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