“It is appalling that an American public school has consciously implemented a policy to segregate students based on race and ethnicity. Excluding children from activities based on immutable characteristics is not only immoral, but unconstitutional – and must be ended immediately – both in Wellesley and everywhere else this practice exists.”
– Nicole Neily, President and Founder of Parents Defending Education
On October 18, 2021, Parents Defending Education (PDE) sued Massachusetts’s Wellesley Public Schools in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. PDE argues 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 holds 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 discourages students from speaking. The district punishes “biased” speech, which it defines as speech that is “offensive,” has an “impact” on others, “treats another person differently,” or “demonstrates conscious or unconscious bias.”
- The district favors 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 are staying silent. Children of PDE’s members have 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 asks 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 asks the court to block both the affinity group policy and the speech code.
Read the initial complaint and preliminary injunction motion below:
