FORT WORTH – Carroll Independent School District officials are reportedly refusing to negotiate the resolution of four former students’ civil rights complaints with the U.S. Department of Education – arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent overturning of the Chevron Deference doctrine makes null and void the federal government’s ability to resolve such claims.
The former students each alleged they were subject of racist and homophobic harassment while students at CISD, detailing their experiences in a complaint summary form.
“Among the individual complainants is Student A, a Black student in the District. At least once each year for over three years, he has been called a ‘n—r.’ He was also called a ‘porch monkey.’ Derogatory language and proxy terms like these are known to be commonplace among students in CISD. When reported, they are often unaddressed, and students who report are retaliated against. Student A was ostracized and called a ‘snitch’ by other students for reporting racial slurs used against him. This student has suffered severe psychological anguish as result of this demeaning harassment. Another individual complainant, Student B, was called racial slurs beginning in elementary school, including the word ‘n—r,’ ‘b—h,’ ‘f—t,’ and referred to as ‘the help.’ Nearly every time this occurred, the District was notified, but did nothing. Student B suffered retaliation and was ultimately forced to withdraw from the District following frequent and severe racial harassment,” according to the form.
“Another individual complainant, Student C, has been subject to harassment on the basis of his sexual orientation, being called ‘gay,’ ‘f—t,’ ‘furry,’ ‘trans.’ The abuse transgressed beyond linguistic into physical violence, leaving welts on his legs. Students also put trash in his backpack. As a result, Student C suffered severe psychological anguish and experienced suicidal ideation. Student C ultimately withdrew from the District following the frequent and severe harassment based on his sex. Another complainant, Student D, who identifies as queer and non-binary, experienced insulting uses of the word ‘gay,’ as well as the homophobic slur ‘f–g.’ On one occasion, Student D was physically attacked in the hallway. When Student D reported these incidents, District staff did nothing to address or prevent the treatment from recurring, making Student D feel that school was not a safe place for them.”
The former students further claimed that the District did not take proper action to respond to the behavior they endured.
“CISD officials declined to take remedial action with respect to individual incidents or to otherwise acknowledge the systemic nature of the problem. Instead, CISD has sought to limit access to information that could raise awareness, promote a more supportive environment for all students, and increase sensitivity about inequality based on race, color, national origin and sex. The District punished a teacher for allowing students to read about antiracism, and instructed staff not to teach that the genocide of Jewish people during the Holocaust was unequivocally wrong,”
“Research shows that race-conscious and culturally relevant education can foster a climate of inclusivity, protect students of color and LGBTQ+ students from the harms of a hostile environment, and allow all students to thrive academically. CISD’s failure to provide necessary instruction and training has had the opposite effect – exacerbating rather than eliminating the discrimination in CISD schools.”
A pair of activist groups which joined the civil rights complaints, the Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition and Cultural & Racial Equity for Every Dragon, sent a letter to CISD officials calling on the District to agree “to remedies that will address the hostile environment” and “fulfill your responsibility to protect all students.”
When the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights reached out to CISD officials to negotiate a resolution of the four civil rights complaints, the federal agency was rebuffed by CISD.
CISD officials authored a letter to the OCR which said, among other things, that a federal judge “enjoined you from implementing, enacting, enforcing or taking any action in any manner to enforce the Final Rule (non-discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance) against Carroll ISD.”
That injunction was handed down in Carroll Independent School District v. United States Department of Education Et.Al, currently being adjudicated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, in Fort Worth.
Furthermore, CISD referenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent striking down of the Chevron Deference doctrine in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, as grounds for their belief that the federal education agencies are no longer granted such deference.
“We are further concerned that in light of the Supreme Court’s holding in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the ability of the OCR to bring enforcement actions based on its interpretations is legally speculative, if it even remains at all. For that reason, please provide us with your rationale as to why any of these cases may proceed now that Raimondo held that your agency’s interpretation is no longer entitled to deference,” the letter stated.
Separately, CISD issued a statement on the complaints in question, accusing the OCR of acting in bad faith.
“The Board of Trustees and Administration thoroughly and fully cooperated with the Office of Civil Rights as soon as we became aware of the complaints and allegations. We answered every question the OCR investigators had and provided thousands of pages of documents in response to OCR inquiries. Once OCR concluded its investigation, it presented us with a proposed Resolution Agreement in an attempt to resolve the cases above. That Resolution Agreement would commit Carroll ISD to years of ongoing obligations in excess of normal legal requirements, which would result in increased expense to the District and burden our teachers and administrators with new rules,” the District said, in part.
“Nevertheless, we chose to engage OCR in what we hoped would be a collaborative process. We requested OCR provide us with its factual conclusions and results of its investigation in writing so that we could asses those in light of the Resolution Agreement OCR was proposing. This seemed reasonable to us because OCR was asking us to negotiate with it. However, OCR never provided us the conclusions of its investigation into the allegations. To date, it still has not provided those despite multiple requests. OCR instead wants us to agree to a legally-binding document without providing us any reason why we should.”
The District added it was “simply not willing to put Carroll ISD into a burdensome agreement and knowing that OCR continues to refuse our requests for its factual findings.”
“We have shown nothing but good faith in this process and expect the same from the OCR. For that reason, we declared an impasse in the negotiations and look forward to defending the District at all levels of this process,” the District said.
From the Southeast Texas Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com