Federal complaint targets Boston school district for Whites-only teacher training on racism

FIRST ON FOX: The Boston Public School (BPS) strategy is facing a national civilian rights ailment aft interior acquisition program documents were leaked showing the territory was organizing racially segregated Whites-only programming for teachers and parents instructing them connected however to beryllium little racist. 

The parental rights advocacy radical Parents Defending Education (PDE) filed a ailment past week with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Boston-area bureau aft uncovering respective interior territory acquisition plans and different documents showing BPS was operating racially-segregated "affinity groups" for teachers and parents. PDE argued successful their complaint, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, that the White-only radical instructing them to beryllium little racist violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

"BPS appears to person affinity groups for unit that excludes definite races. There is astatine slightest 1 affinity radical that is for ‘White Staff and Parents Challenging Racism,'" PDE's ailment stated. 

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Attached to the ailment were interior acquisition plans and different program materials geared toward White "affinity group" members, including a aviator program for the "Mendell Affinity Group for White People Challenging Racism," and a much wide usher for the district's "White School Leader Affinity Group[s]" that includes a ngo statement, a database of norms and objectives, and respective templates for activities that White-affinity radical members tin bash to assistance them go little racist.

"We purpose to educate, support, and respectfully situation 1 different arsenic achromatic radical to look the humanities and existent realities of racism," the ngo connection reads.

"If a district's racially-segregated teacher enactment programs would gain a stamp of support from the KKK, thing has gone terribly incorrect – and the information that nary administrators successful the territory look to person opposed this programming raises further reddish flags," Nicole Neily, the president and laminitis of PDE, told Fox News Digital. "It's not rocket science: including oregon excluding public schoolhouse staff from opportunities connected the ground of tegument colour is wrong."

In 2023, PDE first published its findings connected BPS' racially-segregated affinity groups. Meanwhile, the twelvemonth prior, PDE successfully challenged race-based schoolhouse programming successful different apical Massachusetts schoolhouse district, a determination that resulted successful the cessation of affinity groups that segregated students by race.

Fifth-grade students rise their hands during a subject people astatine St. John Paul II Catholic Academy successful Boston connected Feb. 25, 2016. (Getty Images)

Federal guidance released by the Biden administration successful 2023 stated that portion schools could person candid discussions with students and module astir contention and racism, they apt could not make groups that exclude radical connected the ground of their contention oregon ethnicity.    

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"Title VI mostly requires schools to guarantee that each their students, careless of race, person an adjacent accidental to enactment successful immoderate acquisition programs and activities, including meetings, absorption groups, and listening sessions," the guidance states. "Restricting students’ information based connected their contention would rise important concerns and trigger strict scrutiny nether [the Civil Rights Act]."

Children astatine the Charles H. Taylor simple schoolhouse successful Boston commencement their time with the Pledge of Allegiance. (Getty Images)

Despite the national guidance and empirical grounds that racially-segregated "affinity groups" tin pb to ineligible action, BPS website continues to give an full page to district-wide "anti-racism resources," including a conception with a "Guidelines and Best Practices" papers explaining wherefore the territory "needs" affinity groups "based connected racial/ethnic identity." 

Michele Exner, a elder advisor astatine PDE, told Fox News Digital that successful summation to Massachusetts, she has seen these "affinity groups" popular up successful different states crossed the country, including California, New York and North Carolina.

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"I deliberation these sorts of programs commencement retired well-intentioned, but the infinitesimal that you exclude a definite pupil oregon teacher solely based connected race, that is perfectly wrong. It should not beryllium happening," Exner said.