The destruction of America's public education system

[Brisketexan 105,170]

3 hours ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

It seems like these psychos are making execution comments about Biden daily.  Does this not concern the secret service?  That's okay to do now?  Really makes you think Biden might not be that secure. 

He is NOT secure.  The SS is a den of MAGA.  When the time comes, there are plenty of agents who will actively ASSIST in a violent attempt to take out Biden/the Biden administration.

[TwiceHorn 31,511]

14 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Are you saying you've come upon a situation you can't argue your way out of?  Is this a first for you counselor?  

I'm not arguing out of anything. I am analyzing slorch,who seems to think the current disarray is the  result of prior education policy debates and mistakes, occurring on #bothsides. 

I lay the blame at the feet of the GQP, alone. 

The only real precedent or precursor to this was the failed charter school initiative, which was again a GOP thing. 

Edited March 15 by TwiceHorn

[Nivek 16,946]

On 3/13/2024 at 10:44 PM, slorch said:

Bullshit.  That doesn't happen with involved parents.

Your enabling mentality is whipping your opinion.

We generally suck as a society in raising our kids.  We reap the results.  We also suck as an electorate.  We reap the results.

Let's start at a 50,000 ft view.

More than a decade ago I read a book (How Children Succeed) which delved into the subject quite a bit.  There was some aspects about how children who had been placed in non-traditional schools (Waldorf/Montessori if if recall correctly) had significantly lower rates of mental health issues even when these were serving the same socioeconomic (and demographic) backgrounds.  So if you wanted to talk about this then we would really need our teachers to pipe in because this is really their domain.   

However the book and subsequent material that I have come across, states the most dominant indicator for academic performance is wealth but there were some caveats.   The rates of drug use were similar amongst the poors as the elites, however the impact of this was not even, and the academic performance still improved with wealth accounting for this (IIRC).

Let's zoom in a bit to what you said earlier and the quoted section above.  

Would you consider your son to be relatively successful in his academic career?  When we talked earlier, you mentioned that you had the advantage of being able to only minimally be involved with is education, just setting expectations for the most part.   How does that jive with parental involvement from what you said in this post I quoted?  Or did you mean that just being involved in a non-academic manner?   

Also in the quoted section above, are some generalizations (we suck as a society, electorate, parents...) that I think are kind of a cop-out.  Because they are nonspecific, mostly anecdotal derived opinions, and non-actionable.  I think this type of thinking shirks responsibility not accepts it.   It guides us to throw are hands up and do nothing or gives us an excuse for doing nothing, or minimize the issue and the involvement of people we voted for who participate in actions we disagree with.   

If economics are the key performance issue then it would seem that the overwhelming issues would be related to our tax and income disparity within the U.S.   As we look at the current wealth distribution and how the wealth distribution has changed since the 1940s we can see how policies have helped shape this new era.  So this would be a completely political in order to impact it at the macroscale.   And doing so might make us have to re-evaluate our beliefs and priorities.    

At the regional scale, the economic factors still exist.  But then we are looking at other issues which were intentional and politically motivated that we do have the power to influence and change (since we cannot vote for every member of Congress).  The reduction of SPED identification and the hoops that parents have to go through to get services is intended to frustrate and push that number of students to receive that aid down.   This is a systemic issue.   No one is advocating for 30% of students to receive SPED access/money.   But some of us are interested in making sure that the kids who need help get it and that we live up to the ideal that students receive a free and appropriate education (FAPE).   This issue is not trivial.  And students with behavioral challenges or students with learning challenges will have an impact on the overall performance of the class.   

Anecdote Warning: My son was in class with a kid who had emotional outbursts and could be violent.  The kid had a medical diagnoses and needed help.  He was relocated to a more appropriate school eventually but on his mother's dime.  $40k a year.  This is an unreal sum of money when the average salary in the US is $60k.  How can people afford this and still be involved?

At HISD,  Miles is going to rate teachers based on their testing performance.  While cutting special education and other services.  So this pushes more responsibility onto the teachers.  Those kids who are not getting services and have behavioral or learning challenges are going to hurt teachers ratings as well.  Meanwhile Miles and his crones are exempt from similar performance reviews by the people that pay his salary.

So yes Slorch, this is political.  Because one political group decided to weaponize education and funding, either to hurt a county that votes oppositional to the current leadership within the state, or to simply try to siphon money from the public into the hands of their allies while likely reducing value and accountability and increasing costs, or just because they can.  Whatever the reason, I am personally heavily impacted by it (time, stress, money) and my story is not special or unique in any way.  We have found this out by reaching out to others in our communities.   

 

 

[TexEx15 17,547]

Not sure the best place to put this. Adding here since it’s at a school board meeting. More of this please. 
 

 

[Catdaddyhorn 3,447]

I'm really not sure what to do about this bullshit.  

[Stilicho 1,397]

Here in Oklahoma, we get bomb threats, forced resignations of education professionals, and now a dead kid all thanks to a terrorist Twitter account.

Great fucking times to be a parent. 

[CooterBrown 18,015]

Abbott claims he's 2 votes away from passing vouchers. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gov-greg-abbott-says-texas-163000687.html

 

[Gap03 3,308]

1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

Abbott claims he's 2 votes away from passing vouchers. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gov-greg-abbott-says-texas-163000687.html

 

In a nutshell - 

 

The damage to the state is going to be irreparable, but the good news for the GQP is that most of their constituents are far too stupid to realize who's to blame so there won't be any blowback.  Time to move north - Austin is going to be uninhabitable in the coming years anyway ...  

 

[Nivek 16,946]

Recent Update:

 

Our advocate has spoken to the HISD district reps and got them to agree that they have not been following or implementing the IEP as it was written.  This is a FAPE violation and that exposes them to action and so the district came down on the school and told them to basically give us what we want.   Also, our old IEP had expired and we needed to update the current one with an ARD meeting.   But of course, FBMS officials couldn't help but be fuck-ups.   

We have asked for paperwork on how they have tracked progress for some organizational goals (that were started in October) and one of the forms they sent us looks like it was filled out on the same day with the same pen.  For a series of other tracked progress we have them talking about improvements that were from when the kid was at OFE or showing nearly ZERO progress, but the FBMS reps talking about how good he is doing.  Zero progress is good after 39 weeks?  Some of the filings were outright fiction.  If the kid experiences a troubling event he will be able to return to class and get back on track.  They showed improvement.  His absentee and leaving early due to anxiety seems to indicate otherwise (this was not really an issue at OFE after the 4th grade).  The dyslexia teacher, couldn't provide a single piece of work performed by the kid, she went away from the meeting to fetch some examples but in spite of the meeting running for approximately 2 hours later she couldn't return and come up with anything.   Which was expected as the the recent functional behavior assessment reported that our son was sitting in dyslexia class (and some others) spacing out, watching youtube or playing video games in class, yet, he is making perfect scores all year long. 

We find out the SPED coordinator allegedly tracks behavior and performance by weekly checking in with teacher and casually asking them how he is doing and he just records that info later on.  Then their district staff member steps in with this idea that we can push the responsibility onto the kid to fill out daily forms in each class.   (Hey kid, I know you have organizational challenges and you don't engage in class often,  and demand avoidance is your go to default while here, so let's add another task for you to complete!)  They still do not understand.

Since a few months ago we also learned that the teachers had no access to his IEP or other information and they are just handed a series of accommodations they are to enact, then rubber stamp every assignment with those.   I asked if we track how those accommodations are working and crickets.   No, they don't track that either.  So we have no idea how effective each strategy is, or what techniques they are using to modify behavior or reduce anxiety.  Nothing. 

I want to share how out there some of our demands are.  We asked that the SPED coordinator get trained on Anxiety (he has autism training), and we asked that his teachers get trained on Autism/Anxiety and coordinate with SPED before the start of classes.   We asked that the SPED teacher come in to help keep the kid engaged.  We asked that they teach him the material he missed while vegging out.  We asked that if he does get overwhelmed and cannot attend school they come to the house to help him here.   Of course, it was mentioned that the HISD district cannot help here, because there are no Autism specialists anymore, so all the training has to come from the current SPED coordinator.   However, a psychologist from the district is now involved and will be coming in and overseeing it.   

 

Tangentially, I was recently in a therapy session with the kid.  He didn't want to do it.  He covered himself with a blanket, and despite knowing he needs to sit in the chair and be on camera, he opted to lay on the floor out of site.   The therapist who has never met him in person, who is part of a research study, was able to get this child to come out of his shell, engage, speak up, smile, be playful, all by deftly talking with him about music and asking him to play a song for her that she never heard of.  The kid started dancing during the song even.  She even asked him to write a story (which he hates doing above all else, but he did it for her).  Watching her at work and him respond was shocking.  It was also infuriating.   How so many specialists, councilors, instructors, with all their training, bosses, etc. cannot help this kid but this woman can.   I shared that with his other psychologist and she was like "yeah, stupid this is what we do."   

 

[SydneyCarton 48,130]

40 minutes ago, Nivek said:

Recent Update:

 

Our advocate has spoken to the HISD district reps and got them to agree that they have not been following or implementing the IEP as it was written.  This is a FAPE violation and that exposes them to action and so the district came down on the school and told them to basically give us what we want.   Also, our old IEP had expired and we needed to update the current one with an ARD meeting.   But of course, FBMS officials couldn't help but be fuck-ups.   

We have asked for paperwork on how they have tracked progress for some organizational goals (that were started in October) and one of the forms they sent us looks like it was filled out on the same day with the same pen.  For a series of other tracked progress we have them talking about improvements that were from when the kid was at OFE or showing nearly ZERO progress, but the FBMS reps talking about how good he is doing.  Zero progress is good after 39 weeks?  Some of the filings were outright fiction.  If the kid experiences a troubling event he will be able to return to class and get back on track.  They showed improvement.  His absentee and leaving early due to anxiety seems to indicate otherwise (this was not really an issue at OFE after the 4th grade).  The dyslexia teacher, couldn't provide a single piece of work performed by the kid, she went away from the meeting to fetch some examples but in spite of the meeting running for approximately 2 hours later she couldn't return and come up with anything.   Which was expected as the the recent functional behavior assessment reported that our son was sitting in dyslexia class (and some others) spacing out, watching youtube or playing video games in class, yet, he is making perfect scores all year long. 

We find out the SPED coordinator allegedly tracks behavior and performance by weekly checking in with teacher and casually asking them how he is doing and he just records that info later on.  Then their district staff member steps in with this idea that we can push the responsibility onto the kid to fill out daily forms in each class.   (Hey kid, I know you have organizational challenges and you don't engage in class often,  and demand avoidance is your go to default while here, so let's add another task for you to complete!)  They still do not understand.

Since a few months ago we also learned that the teachers had no access to his IEP or other information and they are just handed a series of accommodations they are to enact, then rubber stamp every assignment with those.   I asked if we track how those accommodations are working and crickets.   No, they don't track that either.  So we have no idea how effective each strategy is, or what techniques they are using to modify behavior or reduce anxiety.  Nothing. 

I want to share how out there some of our demands are.  We asked that the SPED coordinator get trained on Anxiety (he has autism training), and we asked that his teachers get trained on Autism/Anxiety and coordinate with SPED before the start of classes.   We asked that the SPED teacher come in to help keep the kid engaged.  We asked that they teach him the material he missed while vegging out.  We asked that if he does get overwhelmed and cannot attend school they come to the house to help him here.   Of course, it was mentioned that the HISD district cannot help here, because there are no Autism specialists anymore, so all the training has to come from the current SPED coordinator.   However, a psychologist from the district is now involved and will be coming in and overseeing it.   

 

Tangentially, I was recently in a therapy session with the kid.  He didn't want to do it.  He covered himself with a blanket, and despite knowing he needs to sit in the chair and be on camera, he opted to lay on the floor out of site.   The therapist who has never met him in person, who is part of a research study, was able to get this child to come out of his shell, engage, speak up, smile, be playful, all by deftly talking with him about music and asking him to play a song for her that she never heard of.  The kid started dancing during the song even.  She even asked him to write a story (which he hates doing above all else, but he did it for her).  Watching her at work and him respond was shocking.  It was also infuriating.   How so many specialists, councilors, instructors, with all their training, bosses, etc. cannot help this kid but this woman can.   I shared that with his other psychologist and she was like "yeah, stupid this is what we do."   

 

I'm really sorry to hear that. I hope you sue the fuck out of the district and get a settlement big enough to fund your child's development elsewhere. 

All of HISD is going to complete shit regardless, no matter what, so I hope you get yours. 

['stache 21,825]

Tulsa Public Schools had three school board elections yesterday. Each race had a normal supporter of public education and a Moms for Liberty extremist including one who is a plaintiff against the school board for hiring a Black superintendent (or as they put it "failed to conduct a national search" (false) and made a DEI hire (because Black equals unqualified)). All three normies won by pretty healthy margins. T

Also, Oklahoma Attorney General argued to the state supreme court against a Catholic charter school that the governor and his cronies allowed to go into operation with state funds. AG will almost certainly win that case and hopefully will be our next governor (he's still pretty right wing on stuff and not someone I like in general but relatively sane among the nonsense). 

hings like this bring a moment of sanity to my life, at least until the next whack job proposal which is sure to come quick.

[bluto 4,934]

I’m curious to see what happens to housing prices once public education shitshow even impacts the “good school” areas. Or if gentrification hits light speed in well located pockets that were mainly held back by poor schools

[atomheartbevo 89,753]

1 hour ago, bluto said:

I’m curious to see what happens to housing prices once public education shitshow even impacts the “good school” areas. Or if gentrification hits light speed in well located pockets that were mainly held back by poor schools

The bigger impact will be rural areas.  There’s probably 100-150 counties (or more) that would dry up and blow away if their schools are wrecked,

[SydneyCarton 48,130]

4 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

The bigger impact will be rural areas.  There’s probably 100-150 counties (or more) that would dry up and blow away if their schools are wrecked,

I hope they’re in beautiful places like the Smokey’s, or Montana, or the Pacific Northwest, so I can buy cheap land and live away from everyone. 
 

but it will all be like the Texas panhandle. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,515]

6 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

The bigger impact will be rural areas.  There’s probably 100-150 counties (or more) that would dry up and blow away if their schools are wrecked,

School issues aside, there are counties in Texas that could be consolidated. No one can justify Loving county with 50 residents.

[bluto 4,934]

1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

School issues aside, there are counties in Texas that could be consolidated. No one can justify Loving county with 50 residents.

I bet the folks running the county beg to differ. I need to dig up an article about a county like that where a single family runs the county and all the oil money that flows from it. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,515]

36 minutes ago, bluto said:

I bet the folks running the county beg to differ. I need to dig up an article about a county like that where a single family runs the county and all the oil money that flows from it. 

Yes I recall those stories as well. Basically a family/group run the entire county and bring in relatives from Dallas, and other cities, to vote.

[bolverk 29,694]

15 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Yes I recall those stories as well. Basically a family/group run the entire county and bring in relatives from Dallas, and other cities, to vote.

What would be your population threshold for consolidation? To help you decide, I've made a quick map of counties with a population below 25,000.

[bluto 4,934]

22 minutes ago, BeardIP said:

From what I can gather, public schools in "good school" areas as you call them, are funded by bonds that the people vote for. At least that is what one disgruntled teacher told me this week when I asked, "how is like Prosper building a $90 million dollar foosball stadium and Richardson ISD is closing like 4 schools because they are broke". It seems that areas are voting bonds in while waiting on Abbott to release funds that have been locked up for like 2 years now?

On a more granular level I’m talking specific school boundaries within districts. In Fort Worth for example there’s only ~3 elementary schools worth a damn, and the rest are pure shit. (Probably similar to Dallas with Lakewood elementary and the one near lower Greenville)

if you’re in the good boundary your home has a premium, literally one block over exact same house and it’s piss, or shit, your call. 

[Biff Tannen 45,694]

44 minutes ago, BeardIP said:

From what I can gather, public schools in "good school" areas as you call them, are funded by bonds that the people vote for. At least that is what one disgruntled teacher told me this week when I asked, "how is like Prosper building a $90 million dollar foosball stadium and Richardson ISD is closing like 4 schools because they are broke". It seems that areas are voting bonds in while waiting on Abbott to release funds that have been locked up for like 2 years now?

Is this not the result of the Robin Hood funds that Tracis county disproportionately pays out more than any other county in the state?  Even more so than Harris or Dallas counties?

[UpperWestside 6,171]

Those kids in Alaska did a pretty admirable thing on walking out of class and going to the Capitol. Their wonderful governor vetoed another education bill partly because, you guessed it, he wants the state to make it easier for charter schools to take root there. I am so glad I have not brought a child into this world where getting an actual education is now frowned upon. Meanwhile forming charter schools as a way to make money off of the children attending is really all that matters to any of these truly evil and awful people. 

[UpperWestside 6,171]

On 3/16/2024 at 6:23 PM, Catdaddyhorn said:

I'm really not sure what to do about this bullshit.  

This guy was absolutely the most hated superintendent in DISD history when he left. I feel fairly certain that Colorado Springs did not miss him either. 

[SydneyCarton 48,130]

8 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

This guy was absolutely the most hated superintendent in DISD history when he left. I feel fairly certain that Colorado Springs did not miss him either. 

As someone who lives in HISD, I'd love to not miss that mother fucker. 

[UpperWestside 6,171]

17 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

As someone who lives in HISD, I'd love to not miss that mother fucker. 

I can imagine. Nothing good comes for the people that get stuck with him. I remember when he got a popular principal in DISD fired because of test scores. The community overwhelmingly loved what she had done to transform a school that had been a haven for gangs into a place where the students felt safe and that someone actually cared for them. All this terrible human being cared about were test scores and how he could make the biggest amount of money off of the students. His brain is just completely fried  and the world would be a better place if Mike Miles and his ilk had no place in it.

[HenryJames 66,134]

https://kfor.com/news/local/she-couldnt-wait-to-work-for-ryan-walters-administration-now-shes-worried-public-schools-wont-survive-the-rest-of-his-term/

[ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2,680]

12 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

https://kfor.com/news/local/she-couldnt-wait-to-work-for-ryan-walters-administration-now-shes-worried-public-schools-wont-survive-the-rest-of-his-term/

Walters and his goons are absolutely evil degenerates, and that superintendent lady's face got ate up by leopards

[SydneyCarton 48,130]

Working as designed. 

[Nivek 16,946]

So one IEP out of the way, time to discuss my middle child at OFE.  I had a 504 meeting with them.   She is doing well, but has dyslexia.  The state is moving dyslexia over to IEPs from 504s.  So in this meeting I start asking about some testing because she does have a few issues we think she should be evaluated on, which may help her out.  Her dyslexia instructor echoed my sentiments.  The staff starts to push back on me, basically she is doing well enough NOW so they don't want to.  I keep pushing and get to the real issue.  They tell me they (OFE and District) are prioritizing 5th/8th graders because the kids are switching schools.   Like I give a flying fuck.   HISD created this mess, it isn't my daughter's problem that they are understaffed or they were underprepared.    Let's start round 2.    

 

 

[atomheartbevo 89,753]

4 hours ago, HenryJames said:

https://kfor.com/news/local/she-couldnt-wait-to-work-for-ryan-walters-administration-now-shes-worried-public-schools-wont-survive-the-rest-of-his-term/

Having spent way too much time in Oklahoma, and with many relatives and some friends there, he’s going to destroy so many, many small towns by driving the public schools under.  A shitload of small businesses will fold, and a lot of family farms will be sold off/cease to exist as families move.

Sounds like he’s against capitalism, small towns, rural folks, and family farms.  Wonder if some of that Soros money is behind him.

[Nivek 16,946]

Having spent way too much time in Oklahoma, and with many relatives and some friends there, he’s going to destroy so many, many small towns by driving the public schools under.  A shitload of small businesses will fold, and a lot of family farms will be sold off/cease to exist as families move.
Sounds like he’s against capitalism, small towns, rural folks, and family farms.  Wonder if some of that Soros money is behind him.

And as corporate farms swallow it up on the cheap, they will just attribute it to Wall Street and keep voting for those that destroyed their communities. Cause somewhere in the world, there is a happy person in drag feeling fabulous.

[atomheartbevo 89,753]

2 minutes ago, Nivek said:

And as corporate farms swallow it up on the cheap, they will just attribute it to Wall Street and keep voting for those that destroyed their communities. Cause somewhere in the world, there is a happy person in drag feeling fabulous.

And they’ll ignore those corporate farms hiring illegal immigrants.

[bluto 4,934]

Leopard party FEASTING in Florida 

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2024/04/16/duval-county-school-board-to-discuss-controversial-plan-that-could-close-nearly-30-dcps-schools/

[tx 3 putt 77,222]

Abbott is going to be all over this ….

 

[tchookem 3,904]

Check out that ratio...

[HornOnTheBayou 8,942]

6 minutes ago, tchookem said:

Check out that ratio...

As a public school teacher in Texas, I would like to be the first to say "Fuck you, Greg Abbott." Clearly, he doesn't care about teachers because if he did, he would stop holding funding hostage to please some West Texas theocrats. But honestly, I would forgive the lack of a pay raise if he promised to stop promoting policies that hurt my students of color, my LGBTQ+ students, my non-Christian students, oh, and also my female students. If you add all of those groups up, they comprise about 95% of the students in my classroom. So fuck you, Greg Abbott, for demonizing 95% of my students, who I love like my own kids, and then turn around and use me as a political prop for a goddamn tweet.

[miguelito 11,266]

I mean, he could do all those things AND give teachers a raise. It would be easy. 

He's just a piece of shit.

[HornOnTheBayou 8,942]

13 hours ago, miguelito said:

I mean, he could do all those things AND give teachers a raise. It would be easy. 

He's just a piece of shit.

Well sure, but I'm just hoping for anything at this point. Hey Greg, let's start with a bottle of bourbon for every teacher and stop politicizing which bathroom a kid uses at school. After that we can discuss next steps.

[tx 3 putt 77,222]

 

[Brisketexan 105,170]

25 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

And all mentions of the fact that the earth is a sphere and the law of gravity.  To be replaced by a chapter on chemtrails.

We live in the dumbest fucking timeline.

[C-Man 27,237]

This is probably as good a place to park this as anywhere else -- Southlake Carroll ISD is racist/anti LGBTQ.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/southlake-texas-carroll-isd-civil-rights-investigation-rcna151009

Quote

The U.S. Department of Education is seeking to negotiate with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, over four students’ civil rights complaints — which three education law experts say signals that the department has substantiated the students’ allegations of racist and anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

The Education Department’s civil rights enforcement arm described the next steps in its investigation in a letter Monday to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represents the students. The development comes three years after the civil rights organization filed federal complaints on behalf of students who said Carroll officials failed to protect them from harassment.

For more on this story, watch NBC’s “Nightly News with Lester Holt” tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.

The four students, all of whom have either graduated or left the district, reported to the Education Department that they had been subjected to a barrage of racist and homophobic slurs and comments during their years at Carroll. One student said he suffered retaliation after reporting racial harassment to administrators. Another said he contemplated suicide after classmates repeatedly mocked him for his sexual orientation; his family said the district failed to address the bullying.

On Monday, the Education Department notified the NAACP Legal Defense Fund that it had contacted Carroll district officials to begin negotiating a resolution agreement in the four complaints — a step the agency takes only after finding that students’ civil rights have been violated, said Katrina Feldkamp, an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Eight federal civil rights complaints have been opened against the Carroll Independent School District. Nitashia Johnson for NBC News

The Southlake school system — which became the focus of national headlines in 2021 after conservative parents rejected a sweeping plan aimed at preventing discrimination — will now have 90 days to reach an agreement with the Education Department on steps it will take to address problems identified in the student complaints, experts said.

Angela Jones, a Black mother of a former Carroll student who was among those who complained to the Education Department, said she spent years advocating for changes to protect minority students in the affluent North Texas school district. But she was rebuffed by school board members and conservative parents who accused her and others of trying to force a far-left political ideology into classrooms. Jones said she and her family felt validated by the Education Department’s finding.

“They’re saying to the district, ‘You didn’t do it on your own, so we’re going to come in and make some recommendations for you to do it differently,’” Jones said. “I hope they’ll take it seriously, and re-evaluate and negotiate.”

Angela Jones and her husband, Dr. Wendell Jones, say their children faced discrimination in Southlake's public schools. Nitashia Johnson for NBC News

Photos of the Jones children at their home in Southlake.Nitashia Johnson for NBC News

A spokesperson for the Education Department said the agency doesn’t comment on pending cases. Carroll Superintendent Lane Ledbetter and the school board’s president, Cam Bryan, did not respond to messages requesting comment.

The local debate over how to address racism in Carroll schools became a national symbol of the battles over race, gender and sexuality that have swept the country and was featured in the 2021 NBC News podcast series “Southlake.”

The town’s fight began in 2018, after a viral video of white high school students chanting the N-word spurred dozens of Carroll parents and students to come forward with stories of discrimination. After the outcry, the school board appointed a committee of volunteers, including Jones, to come up with strategies to address the problem. The result of their work, the Cultural Competence Action Plan, called for mandatory diversity training for teachers and students and changes to the student handbook explicitly prohibiting harassment on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation, among other changes. Then came the backlash. 

After the plan was released in the summer of 2020, conservative parents and activists — outraged at what they depicted as anti-white and anti-American indoctrination — formed a political action committee called Southlake Families PAC, which promised to defeat the diversity plan and elevate “Judeo-Christian values” in the school district. They raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support a slate of hard-line conservative candidates, launched attack ads accusing their opponents of being radical leftists and, in November 2021, won majority control of the Carroll school board.

Two weeks later, the Education Department opened its initial investigations into student complaints. The total number of civil right investigations at the district would eventually grow to eight. The status of the other four open cases is unclear.

The probes set the stage for a potential conflict between local voters who opposed the diversity plan and federal officials tasked with enforcing federal civil rights laws. Now that the Education Department has initiated the process to negotiate a resolution with the district in four of the complaints, the federal agency could end up requiring Carroll to implement some of the same types of diversity and inclusion programs that Southlake voters have rejected in landslide elections in recent years.

In a video address to the community after the investigations were announced in 2021, Ledbetter, Carroll’s superintendent, said the district would “absolutely comply” if the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) ordered changes. But some local activists have called on the district to fight back against what they see as federal overreach. They have spread unsubstantiated theories that the federal investigation was launched in retaliation against conservatives opposed to critical race theory.

U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, a Republican whose district includes Southlake, wrote a letter in November 2021 to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, co-signed by Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas, expressing fears that the Biden administration was “weaponizing federal resources to intimidate parents who disagree with the policies of this administration.”

In a statement four months later, an Education Department spokesperson said the agency’s work is “in no way retaliatory and OCR serves as a neutral fact-finder with any complaint.”

In the years since gaining control of the school board, members backed by Southlake Families PAC have made changes that diversity advocates say have made the district less inclusive. The board voted in 2022 to eliminate language explicitly prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation and religion from the student handbook. And this week, the board adopted a resolution opposing the Biden administration’s decision to expand Title IX protections to LGBTQ students.

Carroll ISD's school board elections in Southlake, Texas, became a referendum on the district's diversity policies.James Breeden for NBC News

Ledbetter and members of the school board did not respond to a question from NBC News about whether it planned to work with the Education Department to reach a voluntary agreement.

W. Scott Lewis, managing partner at TNG, a consulting firm that advises school districts on complying with federal civil rights laws, said that if Carroll fails to reach a voluntary agreement with the Office for Civil Rights on how to address discrimination, the agency could impose changes that Carroll would have to abide by or risk losing federal funding or inviting an investigation by the Department of Justice.

Another approach that the district could take, Lewis said: Carroll could challenge the Education Department’s findings in court. “That’s not typically been very successful,” Lewis said.

Feldkamp, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney, said her clients have asked the Education Department to require Carroll to implement many of the policies that were included in the Cultural Competence Action Plan, including mandatory diversity training for students and staff members.

“We need to send a message that we will not tolerate Black and brown students being pushed out of school, that it is unacceptable for racism and homophobia to win the day and that our public schools actually are supposed to be educational institutions where all students can feel supported and can thrive,” Feldkamp said.

On Wednesday, two community activist groups that had joined the civil rights complaints — the Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition and Cultural & Racial Equity for Every Dragon — sent a letter to Carroll officials calling on the district to agree “to remedies that will address the hostile environment” and “fulfill your responsibility to protect all students.”

Raven Rolle, a 23-year-old Black Carroll graduate and Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition member, said it shouldn’t have taken federal investigations for the district to listen to current and former students like herself who’ve shared stories of harassment. 

Carroll graduate Raven Rolle said she hopes the federal civil rights investigations lead to changes to benefit future students.Courtesy Raven Rolle

“Hopefully it sets a precedent for the kids that are currently there and kids who will be there years from now that these things will never happen again, and if they do, they’ll be dealt with appropriately,” Rolle said.

Mia Mariani, a 19-year-old college student living in Pittsburgh, was among the former Carroll students notified this week that the Education Department was taking action in response to her complaint of anti-LGBTQ bullying at Carroll. 

Mariani, whose story was detailed in the “Southlake” podcast, was bombarded by a torrent of vulgar messages from classmates on social media mocking her gender identity during a social studies class in the spring of 2022. After reporting the abuse, she secretly recorded her meeting with the principal, who argued that the boys who’d harassed her “were just wanting to debate” politics.  After her parents filed a complaint over the school’s handling of the situation, senior Carroll administrators investigated and concluded that Mariani’s complaint did “not satisfy the criteria necessary to constitute bullying.”

Now it appears the Department of Education has found evidence that her rights were violated.

Mariani said she was surprised when she got the news Monday. She’s worked to move on from her experiences in Southlake, she said, but hopes her case leads to changes for current and future students.

“Any change for them,” Mariani said, “is healing for me.”

 

Edited May 8 by C-Man

[pacman 7,364]

Anything to save Pearson money on paper goods!

Edited May 9 by pacman

[tchookem 3,904]

Pay raises don't mean shit of it means you can't hire adequate staff. I'd gladly give up the extra $75/month their raise gave me in exchange for another staff member that would reduce my class sizes from low 30s to mid 20s.

Or gave my school another ESL teacher that we desperately need.

Or paid the $400+ I spent this year on online resources alone that my students use daily.

But yeah, that Facebook post makes it all worth it.

Eat shit Greg Abbott.

[tx 3 putt 77,222]

4 hours ago, C-Man said:

This is probably as good a place to park this as anywhere else -- Southlake Carroll ISD is racist/anti LGBTQ.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/southlake-texas-carroll-isd-civil-rights-investigation-rcna151009

 

Katy isd also got hit with this 

 

[tx 3 putt 77,222]

 

[C-Man 27,237]

11 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

The Southlake superintendent's "response" to the "Is there racism in Southlake and in Carroll ISD?" question at 1:50 is mind-boggling even now, a few years later.

[tx 3 putt 77,222]

 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10,329]

98% voted no confidence in Miles. He also decided this week to email last year's (2023) Principal of the year to tell her she must resign. He also let go another recent Principal of the year...

I'm sure Abbott's TEA head will form a strongly worded tweet in response.

 

 

[bonnieblue 542]

On 5/10/2024 at 12:46 AM, tx 3 putt said:

 

Your next Lt. Gov

[pacman 7,364]

[tx 3 putt 77,222]

2 hours ago, pacman said:

What a horrible horrible situation. Abbott wants to not only tear down hisd, but the entire damn city