DENVER (KDVR) — Denver Public Schools is facing two federal civil rights investigations that allege the district discriminates against students who are white.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is looking into complaints that DPS uses race in making some decisions and violates the U.S. Constitution, as first reported by the Denver Gazette and confirmed by FOX31.
DPS accused of using race to make decisions
The complaints were filed by Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative nonprofit based in Lakewood.
The group claims DPS discriminated against students and others in two specific scenarios.
The first is when the district created a committee to review disciplinary procedures. Mountain States Legal claims DPS chose people to serve on the committee based on their race.
They cite a text message from a former board member, which said the district wanted to make the committee match its student body, about 75% of whom are students of color.
The other complaint claims DPS uses students’ race to decide who can be a part of an advanced math program for fourth graders. The complaint claims the threshold for students of color is lower than for students who are white.
“DPS is obsessed with race, and they’re obsessed with skin color. And they just can’t help themselves, it looks like,” said William Trachman, with Mountain States Legal. “But our hope is that OCR, the Office for Civil Rights, will come in and say, ‘You can’t act like this. You have a duty to abide by federal civil rights laws just like everyone else.’”
Denver school district responds to claims
DPS officials did not want to talk on camera about the complaints but did send a statement.
“Denver Public Schools operates under Department of Justice guidance in regard to equity work. The DOJ has issued guidance to guide equity work in public schools and everything we do in Denver Public Schools is aligned to that Department of Justice guidance,” the statement reads.
These complaints, among others, were filed last year, and the investigation was opened last week. It typically takes about six months for the Office for Civil Rights to complete them.
