A summary of the complaint listed on the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund website alleges the district has “[forced] students to endure severe and pervasive race and sex harassment in order to access their education” and that by doing this, school officials have “[violated] their duty under civil rights law to provide all students with a nondiscriminatory environment conducive to learning.”
CISD officials and the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights could not be reached for comment.
The complaint was filed on behalf of two groups of Carroll ISD students and parents, Cultural & Racial Equity for Every Dragon and Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition. It involves information from four CISD students who said they have experienced discrimination while at school based on their race, sexuality or gender identity.
This latest complaint comes after the Office for Civil Rights opened three investigations in November involving the district.
A letter to the district from the Office for Civil Rights in November stated that “opening a complaint allegation for investigation in no way implies that [the office] has made a determination with regard to its merits. During the investigation, [the office] is a neutral fact finder, collecting and analyzing relevant evidence from the complainant, the recipient and other sources as appropriate.”
Antonio Ingram, an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund who is working on the case, said filing the complaint and opening up an investigation will help amplify the voices of parents and students in the community who have been speaking out about the discrimination they’ve experienced in their schools.
“We believe it will help create positive change for students and their families who are just trying to get a quality education and are being impeded from doing so because of their immutable characteristics, such as their racial background, or gender identity, or sexual orientation,” Ingram said. “Our civil rights law prohibits that.”
Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the headline. The suit was filed by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
