Updated at 9:30 a.m. Monday to reflect the podcast’s availability.
A new podcast from NBC News takes a deep dive into the fight over diversity and inclusion in Southlake schools.
The affluent, mostly white Carroll school district has become a symbol of the firestorm over how this country deals with race and racism in the classroom.
The series, Southlake, chronicles how it all unfolded. The six-part podcast is hosted by national investigative reporter Mike Hixenbaugh and NBC News correspondent Antonia Hylton.
“In 2018, a 9-second video blew open some very old divides and exposed an uncomfortable truth,” the audio trailer describes. “Your experience at school has a lot to do with your skin color.”
That was the year a video of Southlake students chanting the N-word went viral. Afterward, the district convened a group of more than 60 students, parents and staff to discuss how students of color are treated in the district and to assemble recommendations on how to improve the school environment.
The resulting “Cultural Competence Action Plan” includes a wide-ranging set of recommendations such as: hire a director of equity and inclusion; establish a grievance system through which students can report discrimination; require cultural competency training; and audit the district curriculum through an equity lens.
But many families quickly turned against the group’s work and rallied to oppose the proposals. At tense school board meetings, parents accused the district of promoting a “left-wing agenda” and creating “diversity police.” Meanwhile, students of color stood up to testify about the racism they faced at school.
A mother in the district sued over the plan. Two trustees were indicted on charges of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act by discussing the diversity work privately. A heated election season resulted in major change on the school board, with candidates opposed to the diversity plan sweeping in.
As tensions in Southlake escalated, so did the national culture wars over the idea of “critical race theory” in schools, fueling the fire in Carroll ISD.
“We basically stumbled into a town that had a two-year head start on the fight that is now spread across the country,” Hixenbaugh told the Houston Chronicle.
Carroll ISD spokeswoman Karen Fitzgerald said the district has been listening to families’ concerns and will roll out a new system for students and parents to report incidents to the administration.
Because of a temporary restraining order, she said, the “district can’t implement or discuss anything related to our diversity plan.”
The first two episodes became available Monday, Aug. 30, with new episodes following on successive Mondays.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University and Todd A. Williams Family Foundation. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
