Carroll ISD under civil rights investigation over alleged racial, gender discrimination
The Civil Rights office of the U.S. Department of Education is conducting three investigations into discrimination complaints of racism and sexual orientation involving the Carroll school district.
A spokesman for the Department of Education confirmed that complaints were filed, but he declined to provide details about the complaints.
The spokesman wrote in an email that, “We can confirm that OCR has opened three investigations at the Carroll Independent School District into allegations related to discrimination based on race, color, national origin, or sex.”
Karen Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman for the school district, said in an email to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the district received three office of civil rights complaints last week.
“Our district is fully cooperating with this process and diligently pulling all documents requested. These OCRs are student situations; therefore, due to the Federal Act to Education Privacy Act (FERPA), we are unable to provide or share any more specifics at this time,” Fitzgerald wrote.
An NBC News report said the school district was notified last week of the investigation, which could take months or years.
Beginning three years ago, two videos of white students chanting racial slurs went viral, which led to the district forming a diversity council of 63 parents, students and district officials. The District Diversity Council wrote a 34-page Cultural Competence Action Plan in an effort to address concerns over bullying and discrimination from students.
The plan was meant to be a starting point, but it quickly became a lightning rod for controversy when a vocal group of parents and the well-organized Southlake Families Political Action Committee showed up at school board meetings and spoke out, saying the plan focused on tracking microaggressions and went against the conservative values their children learned at home.
One of the parents filed a lawsuit against the district alleging that school board members, including former board president Michelle Moore, alleging they discussed the Cultural Competence Action plan in text messages which violates the Texas Open Meetings Act. The lawsuit is still pending.
Last spring, state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, who is also an attorney, held a press conference at Frank Cornish Park in Southlake where he called on Carroll trustees to adopt the Cultural Competence plan and said at the time that his law firm would take legal action if necessary.
West did not return a phone call seeking comment about the civil rights complaints.
Other parents from the group Cultural and Racial Equity for Every Dragon declined to comment about the complaints.
During the past month, a Carroll teacher was reprimanded after a parent complained that her child was bullied after bringing home a book, “This Book is Anti-Racist”, a New York Times bestseller.
The district said the teacher was reprimanded due to a personnel issue.
Recently, Carroll’s curriculum director told teachers that if they had books in the classroom about the Holocaust, they had to provide materials with opposing viewpoints. The district later backtracked and apologized. Superintendent Lane Ledbetter said the Holocaust was a terrible event in history and that there are not two sides to the Holocaust.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 10:58 AM with the headline "Carroll ISD under civil rights investigation over alleged racial, gender discrimination."