Feds open civil rights investigations into Southlake Carroll schools

The U.S. Department of Education opened a civil rights investigation into allegations of discrimination in Southlake schools, district and federal officials confirmed.

The department’s Office for Civil Rights last week informed the Carroll school district — which has been at the center of an ongoing firestorm over how to handle diversity and inclusion — that it opened three investigations.

NBC News first reported the news of a federal probe.

An education department spokeswoman confirmed that the investigations are looking into “allegations related to discrimination based on race, color, national origin, or sex.”

Karen Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman for Carroll ISD, wrote in a statement that the district is “fully cooperating with this process and diligently pulling all documents requested.“

She declined to share more information on the specifics of the requests, citing student privacy law.

“Our focus will always be what is best for our students as we prepare them for their next steps in their educational journey,” she wrote.

The affluent, mostly white district — the subject of a six-part NBC podcast — has become a symbol for what backlash against “critical race theory” in schools looks like.

The district recently attracted national attention after an administrator advised educators to teach students about the Holocaust from “opposing” perspectives, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

Trustees also recently voted to reprimand a teacher who gave one of her students a book about anti-racism entitled This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell. The book is a New York Times bestseller.

Carroll ISD has been embroiled in controversy that started with the district’s proposed diversity and inclusion plan, called the Cultural Competence Action Plan. The plan — intended to make the district more inclusive for students of color — was drafted by a council of more than 60 parents, students and staff after videos of Carroll students chanting the N-word went viral in 2018 and 2019.

The proposed plan included 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.

A vocal group of families rallied against those ideas, launching a broader revolt in the district. Parents crowded in tense board meetings for months, with some accusing the district of promoting a “left-wing agenda” and creating “diversity police.”

A mother in the district sued over the plan, halting any work on it for the time being. Two trustees were later indicted on charges of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act by privately discussing the district’s diversity work.

Heated trustee elections — powered by huge infusions of cash from a conservative PAC — resulted in major changes on the school board recently, as candidates opposed to the diversity plan swept into office.

Two of those new trustees spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference over the summer and encouraged parents to follow the Southlake playbook and “take back your school boards from the left and the progressives.”

Amid the political fights, students of color have continued to speak out about racism they’ve experienced at Southlake schools.

And the community remains deeply divided.

Martha Blue, whose youngest child graduated from Carroll ISD last year, said it’s unfortunate that Southlake’s fight escalated to the point where it triggered a federal investigation. She said officials have swept the school system’s problems under the rug for years instead of addressing them head-on.

“You get a diagnosis of cancer from a doctor, you pay attention to that,” she said. “We’ve had these aches and pains of problems in our district that we haven’t addressed. It’s finally escalated to a serious problem that we can’t ignore anymore.”

Office of Civil Rights investigations can take months or even years to reach a resolution. If the office finds a civil rights violation, they would work to negotiate a “voluntary resolution agreement” that sets specific actions needed to remediate the problem. Federal officials would then monitor how those steps were implemented over time.

Last week in a video message to parents and students, Superintendent Lane Ledbetter vowed to shift his focus from uniting the city to uniting the school district. He has been in his role less than a year.

“My job is to take care of our staff and to ensure that we’re providing a world-class education in a safe environment for our kids and our staff,” Ledbetter said in the video. “And I apologize that I’ve been distracted.”

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