UPDATE: On August 5, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights dismissed this complaint. See the letter here.
On February 7, 2024, Parents Defending Education filed a complaint against the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), a public residential high school in Aurora, Illinois, with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. DE claimed IMSA was breaking Title VI, a law that bans race discrimination in programs that receive federal funds. It also claimed IMSA was violating the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, which bars government bodies, including public schools, from treating people differently because of their race except in rare cases.
IMSA’s Brotherhood Sister Circle affinity group was open only to Black and Latino students, and some of its events were further split by sex. Emails obtained through a public records request show that invitations to the group’s retreat were sent only to the “emails for the Black and Latinx students.” Students of other races were not sent invitations.
Read the full complaint and see its evidence below:
