Thursday, November 18, 2021

School Of Hard-Right Knocks, Con't

President Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona are making good on promises to protect the civil rights of kids in schools, under attack as they are in states like Texas.
 
The U.S. Education Department’s civil rights enforcement arm is investigating allegations of discrimination at the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, the agency and the school district confirmed Wednesday.

The department’s Office for Civil Rights notified the suburban school district’s officials last week that it had opened three investigations into complaints about discrimination against students based on their race, gender and national origin. The agency declined to provide details on the allegations and doesn’t comment on pending investigations, a spokesman said.

Karen Fitzgerald, a Carroll spokeswoman, confirmed that the district had received three notification letters and is “fully cooperating with this process.”

“Our focus will always be what is best for our students as we prepare them for their next steps in their educational journey,” she said, noting that federal law prohibits her from commenting on cases involving specific students.

The Carroll school system’s handling of discrimination allegations has been the focus of national media attention this year, placing Southlake at the center of a growing political battle over school programs, books and curricula on race, gender and sexuality that some conservatives have misbranded under the umbrella of critical race theory.

The Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, is responsible for enforcing federal laws that protect students from discrimination. Brett Sokolow, president of the Association of Title IX Administrators, a consulting firm that advises school districts on how to resolve civil rights complaints, said when the agency opens an investigation, it’s often the beginning of a process that can take months or years. If the investigation confirms violations of students’ rights, the agency can require a school district to make policy changes and submit to federal monitoring.

“Opening a complaint means that OCR believes that there is a likely violation based on the complaint,” he said. “And then they’re going to do their due diligence to find out more information.”

The federal investigations come three years after leaders in the Carroll school system, 30 miles northwest of Dallas, promised and ultimately failed to make sweeping changes to address racism in the district following the release of a video of white high school students chanting the N-word. After the video went viral, dozens of parents, students and recent graduates came forward with stories of racist and anti-LGBTQ harassment at Carroll, a majority-white district that has grown more diverse in recent years.


The district’s proposal to address the issues, the 34-page Cultural Competence Action Plan, would have required diversity training for all students and teachers, a new process to report and track incidents of racist bullying, and changes to the code of conduct to hold students accountable for acts of discrimination, among other changes. But after the district unveiled the plan in August 2020, conservative parents packed school board meetings, formed a political action committee and funded a civil lawsuit to block the changes.

They argued that the plan would have created “diversity police” and amounted to “reverse racism” against white children. Opponents took particular issue with a district proposal to track incidents of microaggressions — subtle, indirect and sometimes unintentional incidents of discrimination.
 
Now, we'll be treated to months of "Biden's corrupt Justice Department targeting concerned parents!" but that was going to happen for the rest of this administration anyway, there's no point in giving in to these clowns. 

The right move here by Education Department.

The Big Lie, Con't

The FBI has long been investigating Mesa County, Colorado Clerk Tina Peters over possible election tampering and using her position to feed Trump's Big Liars like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and yesterday the feds raided Peters's office and home.
 
A law enforcement task force searched four western Colorado locations amid an investigation into allegations that an elections clerk was involved in a security breach of elections equipment earlier this year, a district attorney said.

The FBI, the Colorado Attorney General’s office and local authorities conducted the searches, which were authorized by a federal court, on Tuesday in Mesa and neighboring Garfield counties, Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein told Colorado Politics.

Rubinstein didn’t disclose the locations that were searched, telling The Associated Press in an email that “all documents related to these operations are sealed” by court order. The searches involved ”potential criminal activity by employees of the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder’s Office and others associated with those employees,” Rubinstein’s office said in a statement Wednesday.

Tina Peters, the elections clerk for Mesa County, which includes the city of Grand Junction, said her home was searched, the Colorado Politics media outlet reported.

“The FBI raided my home at 6 a.m. this morning, accusing me of committing a crime,” Peters said. “And they raided the homes of my friends, mostly older women. I was terrified.”

The FBI office in Denver didn’t immediately respond to an email requesting comment. Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for Attorney General Phil Weiser, said the state is working with Mesa County on an investigation into the alleged election system breach but could not comment further on the continuing probe.

The searches came amid an ongoing dispute between Peters, who presided over elections in conservative Mesa County in 2020, and Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat and vocal presence nationally for ensuring election integrity.

Peters has become an advocate for those who believe, without evidence, that the 2020 election was fraudulent — although she has said elections in Mesa County, which voted overwhelmingly for Trump, were secure and accurate. In contrast, Democrat Joe Biden handily defeated Trump in Colorado in 2020, and Democrats control the governor’s office, the state Legislature and all statewide offices.

Colorado Politics reported that Peters commented about the searches during an appearance on an online channel operated by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and a supporter of Peters and former President Donald Trump who has repeatedly made discredited claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

Peters, a Republican, is being investigated by the FBI and by Colorado state officials in an alleged breach of elections equipment in Mesa County in May. Griswold successfully sued to have Peters and a deputy, Belinda Knisley, prohibited by a judge from administering the November midterm election. Peters has denied any wrongdoing
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Once again, the actual election fraud and voting fraud in 2020 were committed by Republicans. I hope Peters goes away for a long time.

StupidiNews!