The details
During a regular meeting of the Carroll ISD board Oct. 21, a resolution denouncing the OCR’s actions to reopen a previously closed investigation was passed, 5-0. Board members Renee Bottom and Alex Sexton were absent from the meeting.
Reading from the resolution, Board President Cameron Bryan said the OCR’s resolution was “retaliation” and further described it as “costly, unlawful and unexplained.” Bryan added the district has fully cooperated with the OCR’s investigation over the last three years, which included:
- Providing thousands of pages of evidence demonstrating the district’s compliance with civil rights laws
- Committing thousands of staff hours to the investigation
- Spending more than $320,000 in community tax dollars on the investigation
After evaluating the OCR’s 20-page resolution, Bryan said the district determined that accepting it would “[unjustifiably] impose onerous obligations” that include administrative burdens and additional costs to the community.
Bryan continued to read from the resolution, saying the board views the OCR’s decision to reopen the investigation as a “retaliatory measure designed to punish the district for refusing to blindly sign a proposed resolution designed to coerce the district into agreeing to a costly proposed resolution.”
What they’re saying
Place 3 Trustee Dudley Jordan said that in his nearly 25 years being a lawyer, he’s never seen a process so openly one-sided and unfair.
“We have spent the last three years complying with every request that the OCR has given us,” Jordan said. “I can say that in every one of these cases, every [staff member] that acted in the cases did everything in accordance with our policies, did everything to protect the students involved, and where punishment was necessary, they meted it out with no further issues. We’ve gone by the book.”
Place 2 Trustee Eric Lannen, a human resources professional with 35 years of experience, said the district has responded appropriately to the OCR with regard to these matters.
“I read every single one of the responses we sent the OCR and I’m proud of what our district has done to respond with every piece of documentation,” Lannen said. “This district has done every single thing it could have possibly done.”
How we got here
According to previous Community Impact reporting, on May 6, the Office of Civil Rights told members of Cultural & Racial Equity for Every Dragon, a group of parents of Black Southlake students, and the Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition, a group of current and former CISD students, that it had initiated negotiations with CISD after investigating four complaints filed by the groups in 2021.
The complaints chronicled instances where students were subject to racial slurs, homophobic comments and other verbal and physical harassment based on race, gender identity and sexual orientation without appropriate intervention from school officials and administrators, according to the letter.
As part of his president’s report at the Sept. 24 board meeting, Bryan gave the following timeline of recent events related to the complaints:
- The district received a letter from OCR on May 6 that included a proposed resolution of action items with regard to the four complaints. The letter stated OCR had completed its investigation of the complaints and gave the district 90 days to sign the proposal.
- On Aug. 5, at the end of the 90-day period, the district responded to OCR with a letter of impasse stating OCR had not provided the district with its findings and conclusions to substantiate the proposed resolution.
- Carroll ISD has requested OCR’s findings and conclusions on four different occasions and OCR has refused to provide that evidence.
- On Sept. 19, Carroll ISD officials met with OCR via Zoom and asked for OCR’s findings and were again denied that evidence.
