Denver public schools were hit with a federal civil rights complaint Thursday, as whistleblowers exposed an apparently extensive focus on race in nearly all aspects of schools' operations.
The complaint, filed by the Mountain States Legal Foundation and obtained by the Washington Examiner, contains interviews and affidavits from several employees alleging staff training and expectations, as well as student discipline, is viewed almost entirely through a racial lens and is lopsided in favor of non-white students.
“Students and parents deserve to know that when attending Denver Public Schools, skin color won’t matter. But, that just isn’t true," William Trachman, general counsel of Mountain States Legal Foundation and former deputy assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, told the Washington Examiner. "As a parent with students in DPS, I am shocked by what whistleblowers from within the district have reported and by the extensive ways DPS uses race in employment and educational decisions. Compliance with federal civil rights laws isn’t optional. But if DPS won’t recognize that, then the U.S. Department of Education is going to have to.”
Trachman, who filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, is looking for a "widespread monitoring agreement of the school district regarding race neutrality," according to the filing, which alleges systemic violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The school district has a specific focus on "black excellence" and has special programs not available to white or Asian students, according to the filing.
One DPS employee, who remained anonymous, said in an affidavit that staff are asked to identify themselves racially and that "whites" and "people of color" are given different training prompts depending on their answers.
White employees are taught that characteristics such as punctuality and perfectionism are racist and have roots in white supremacy, according to the filing. Similarly, white persons are "inherently prejudiced, harbor racist beliefs, and that they cannot change their prejudices against other people from other racial demographics," the employee explained.
Relaying some personal stories, the employee said she once disagreed with the sentiments against white people in the training. When she expressed her disagreement to a black employee, she was promptly reminded that white employees are "supposed to listen and lift up voices of people of color, without ever responding in a negative or disagreeable way."
She also said on one occasion, her son, who attends DPS, was assaulted by a black female student, but that school leadership refused to document the incident or punish the student because she was black.
A teacher at Northfield High School, who also remained anonymous, said extra study opportunities were afforded to non-white students over white or Asian students. The teacher also said some struggling students were given the opportunity for individual teacher check-ins, and "historic injustices" were a large part of the process for deciding which students would receive the remediation. According to the teacher, none of the students approved for check-ins at the high school were white or Asian, despite knowledge of struggling white and Asian students who could have used the help.
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The teacher also stated that DPS adopted a facially race-neutral policy for "grading for equity," where an incomplete assignment would be given a minimum of 50% as opposed to a zero, but that policy was adopted specifically to benefit non-white and non-Asian students, as black and Hispanic students are primarily the students who do not turn into assignments.
The Washington Examiner reached out to DPS for comment.
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