Carroll ISD set to consider diversity plan for schools amid calls to delay vote

The Carroll Independent School District (CISD) is expected to consider a detailed plan on how to handle racist incidents, promote diversity training, and a slew of other objectives at Monday’s virtual board meeting.

But there’s been push back to this plan.

The “Five-Year Cultural Competence Action Plan” was devised by CISD’s District Diversity Council after a video of CISD students saying the n-word went viral on social media in 2018, sparking outrage among local residents.

CISD has seen other similar incidents. In 2019, another video surfaced that featured students repeatedly saying the n-word in a car. One was confirmed by the district to be a CISD student and another CISD student was off-camera.

Now, the district is going to deliberate on an extensive plan that is 34 pages long, detailing several goals and strategies, including proposed policy changes.

Some of the goals in the plan have already been marked “completed,” like the process the district will follow “for campus administrators to include incident notes to document microaggressions and discriminatory behaviors in the discipline offense history for students in the Skyward Management System.”

As the school board prepares to discuss this plan, opposition has already manifested on social media.

A petition on southlakefamilies.org is calling for the school board to delay its vote on the plan for six months so parents can review the 34-page document.

The website says that “Southlake Carroll School District is being taken over by liberal activists with a national agenda trying to force CISD to adopt a radical Cultural Competence Action Plan that parents and residents have not had the opportunity to adequately review.”

The website says that the district’s diversity plan is “bad for students” due to its cost over a 10-year period. If approved, the plan is expected to cost $425,000 its first year for costs like stipends, an audit and speakers. After that, it’s expected to cost $250,000 annually.

The document notes that the district applied for a $330,000 grant that “outlined the addition of two victim advocate counselors.”

The district doesn’t expect to hear back on the status of that application until October.

On the other hand, the student-led Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition (SARC) calls for “systemic, anti-racist change in CISD.”

The group lists on its website a list of demands like for the district to publicly condemn police brutality, to ban white supremacist imagery at the school and to implement a zero-tolerance policy, among many other demands.

SARC “endorses” the implementation of the district’s cultural competency plan but calls for “its improvement to ensure it does not continue to fall short of the most necessary changes.”

The group notes that the 34-page document mentions the word “racism” only once.

This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 5:30 AM.