Under the guise of “racial equity,” WPS has adopted a policy of segregating students by race. Specifically, WPS sponsors and organizes racial “affinity group” meetings that are open to some students but closed to others, based solely on the races and ethnicities of the students involved.
Case Details
Case Status
Settled
Location
Massachusetts
Date Filed
October 19, 2021
UPDATE: In February 2022, the case ended in a settlement. Wellesley Public Schools agreed that any future affinity groups must be open to all students, regardless of race, and its “Bias Reporting Procedure” was replaced and will not be brought back.
In October 2021, Parents Defending Education (PDE) sued Massachusetts’s Wellesley Public Schools in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. PDE argued the district repeatedly violated students’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Massachusetts Students’ Freedom of Expression Law.
According to the lawsuit:
- The district held race-segregated events. As part of its “Strategic Equity Plan [for] 2020-2025,” the district began hosting racially separated affinity groups, saying they were needed for “racial equity.” The district said these groups let people share experiences “without another group’s voices,” showing they were designed to exclude.
- Officials sorted students by race. Emails show the district’s diversity, equity, and inclusion director wished the school kept a list of students by race so she could more easily invite only Asian and Asian American students to an event. Yet the district refused to host an affinity group for Jewish students, despite rising antisemitic violence nationwide.
- The speech code discouraged students from speaking. The district punished “biased” speech, which it defined as speech that is “offensive,” has an “impact” on others, “treats another person differently,” or “demonstrates conscious or unconscious bias.”
- The district favored some viewpoints. When families raised concerns about Black Lives Matter flags at several schools, the district refused to also fly Israeli or Thin Blue Line flags to show a range of views.
- Students stayed silent. Children of PDE’s members avoided talking about topics like abortion, affirmative action, and the Second Amendment for fear of being reported anonymously through the district’s bias response system.
“Wellesley Public Schools maintains multiple policies that demonstrate the district’s deep contempt for the constitutional rights of its students,” said Parents Defending Education President Nicole Neily. “Racial and viewpoint discrimination have no place in an American public school, and we are proud to fight on behalf of our members to put a stop to these unconstitutional policies.”
PDE asked the court to declare that the district’s segregated affinity groups violate the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI, and that its speech policy violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments and the Massachusetts Students’ Freedom of Expression Law. PDE also asked the court to block both the affinity group policy and the speech code.
Read the complaint below: