'The minute that you exclude a certain student or teacher solely based on race, that is absolutely wrong,' advocate says
School district faces civil rights complaint over Whites-only 'affinity group' about how to be less racist
Parental rights advocacy group, Parents Defending Education (PDE), plans to file a civil rights complaint against Boston Public Schools over the district's racially-segregated "affinity groups"
FIRST ON FOX: The Boston Public School (BPS) system is facing a federal civil rights complaint after internal lesson plan documents were leaked showing the district was organizing racially segregated Whites-only programming for teachers and parents instructing them on how to be less racist.
The parental rights advocacy group Parents Defending Education (PDE) filed a complaint last week with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Boston-area office after uncovering several internal district lesson plans and other documents showing BPS was operating racially-segregated "affinity groups" for teachers and parents. PDE argued in their complaint, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, that the White-only group instructing them to be less racist violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
"BPS appears to have affinity groups for staff that excludes certain races. There is at least one affinity group that is for ‘White Staff and Parents Challenging Racism,'" PDE's complaint stated.
Attached to the complaint were internal lesson plans and other curriculum materials geared toward White "affinity group" members, including a pilot curriculum for the "Mendell Affinity Group for White People Challenging Racism," and a more general guide for the district's "White School Leader Affinity Group[s]" that includes a mission statement, a list of norms and objectives, and several templates for activities that White-affinity group members can do to help them become less racist.
"We aim to educate, support, and respectfully challenge one another as white people to face the historical and current realities of racism," the mission statement reads.
"If a district's racially-segregated teacher support programs would earn a stamp of approval from the KKK, something has gone terribly wrong – and the fact that no administrators in the district seem to have opposed this programming raises additional red flags," Nicole Neily, the president and founder of PDE, told Fox News Digital. "It's not rocket science: including or excluding public school staff from opportunities on the basis of skin color is wrong."
In 2023, PDE first published its findings on BPS' racially-segregated affinity groups. Meanwhile, the year prior, PDE successfully challenged race-based school programming in another top Massachusetts school district, a move that resulted in the cessation of affinity groups that segregated students by race.
Fifth-grade students raise their hands during a science class at St. John Paul II Catholic Academy in Boston on Feb. 25, 2016. (Getty Images)
Federal guidance released by the Biden administration in 2023 stated that while schools could have candid discussions with students and faculty about race and racism, they likely could not create groups that exclude people on the basis of their race or ethnicity.
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"Title VI generally requires schools to ensure that all their students, regardless of race, have an equal opportunity to participate in any educational programs and activities, including meetings, focus groups, and listening sessions," the guidance states. "Restricting students’ participation based on their race would raise significant concerns and trigger strict scrutiny under [the Civil Rights Act]."
Children at the Charles H. Taylor elementary school in Boston start their day with the Pledge of Allegiance. (Getty Images)
Despite the federal guidance and empirical evidence that racially-segregated "affinity groups" can lead to legal action, BPS website continues to devote an entire page to district-wide "anti-racism resources," including a section with a "Guidelines and Best Practices" document explaining why the district "needs" affinity groups "based on racial/ethnic identity."
Michele Exner, a senior adviser at PDE, told Fox News Digital that in addition to Massachusetts, she has seen these "affinity groups" pop up in other states across the country, including California, New York and North Carolina.
"I think these sorts of programs start out well-intentioned, but the minute that you exclude a certain student or teacher solely based on race, that is absolutely wrong. It should not be happening," Exner said.
