Southlake, Texas mayor calls federal civil rights probe of city's school district "costly distraction" that might be politically motivated
The mayor of Southlake, Texas calls a federal civil rights probe into its school district a "costly distraction" that may be politically motivated, CBS Dallas reports.
The probe, to be conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, comes after several racially charged incidents.
Mayor John Huffman suggested that the Carroll Independent School Board's reversal of its plan to teach critical race theory is behind the investigation.
Carroll ISD issued a statement saying it is "fully cooperating with this process and diligently pulling all documents requested."
But Huffman took issue with the probe, writing on Facebook that, "I don't think I am alone in wondering if this investigation is retaliation for our voters rejecting the pro-CRT CCAP plan, especially since the threat to involve the federal government was made by some CCAP supporters to the media."
CCAP is a Cultural Competence Action plan that the district tried to impose last year before it was blocked by court action from parents who called it reverse racism.
It's unclear how long the investigation will take, but such probes average about six months.
The district announced Wednesday that it's facing three allegations of racial and gender discrimination filed by students with the Education Department last week, CBS Dallas says.
The allegations follow the district facing harsh scrutiny last month after a secret recording revealed an administrator saying books on the Holocaust need an "opposing" view.
That controversy sparked fierce debate among parents and teachers who attended a Carroll ISD school board meeting the following week.
Some parents of students in the district greeted news of the federal investigation by insisting there is a race problem there that needs to be addressed.
"When my 10th grader was in 5th grade, she had to sit through a class of social studies where there was a video of 9/11," Sheeza Mohsin told CBS Dallas. "It was pretty much insinuated that all Muslims are terrorists and after that she got comments like, 'Are you going to kill us? Are you a terrorist?'"
That episode 5 years ago was followed by a video that emerged in 2018 of Carroll High School students chanting racial slurs.
It prompted the mother of two to become more involved.