Department of Education finds Southlake Carroll schools violated students’ civil rights
Three years after students and their parents filed complaints detailing discrimination due to race, gender and sexual orientation, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights found that the Carroll school district violated students’ civil rights.
Three years after students and their parents filed complaints detailing discrimination due to race, gender and sexual orientation, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights found that the Carroll school district violated students’ civil rights.
The complaints said Carroll officials failed to protect them from frequent and unimpeded racist and homophobic slurs during their years at Carroll.
The Office for Civil Rights sent a letter to the district officially notifying them of their findings pertaining to the four civil rights complaints that were investigated.
The district was given 90 days to respond to the letter and to sign “a proposed resolution of action items” agreement, which is an agreement in which both parties will jointly come up with a plan to address the complaints.
On June 24, 2024, during a regular district meeting, school board president Cameron Bryan said that the district has contacted the Office for Civil Rights three times requesting specific details concerning the civil rights violations.
The district has fully cooperated with the investigation, and has spent over $320,000 of taxpayer dollars and thousands of staff hours to provide documentation requested by the Office of Civil Rights, Bryan said.
Trustees also reviewed the complaints and “steadfastly” stands behind the teachers, administrators and principals who investigated the complaints, he added.
The district currently has four other similar cases with the Education Department still pending investigation.