By Nicole C. Brambila | Colorado Politics
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened two discrimination complaints filed against Denver Public Schools’ use of race in selecting committee members to evaluate the district’s “discipline matrix” and in deciding which students can take math extension courses.
The complaints, filed by the Mountain States Legal Foundation in November and September, respectively, alleged that the district gives preferential treatment to persons of color and inferred that its use of the word “diverse” is a veiled reference to considering race and people’s gender identity.
Will Trachman, general counsel for Mountain States Legal Foundation, said the district cannot discriminate against White students or individuals who identify with their sex at birth to “make up for some deficiencies” in the educational outcomes of marginalized students.
“They treat students differently based on race,” said Trachman, who formerly served as deputy assistant secretary in the Office for Civil Rights.