Carroll ISD in Southlake now facing eight federal civil rights investigations

SOUTHLAKE, Texas — Editor’s note: The video above is from a report on Sept. 2, 2022.

Following a controversy late last year when Carroll ISD in Southlake rolled back protections for students based on race, gender, religion and sexual orientation, the district is facing scrutiny through several federal civil rights investigations. 

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights confirmed there are eight open investigations into the district. 

“Three investigations are open under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities of 1990; two are open under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and three are open under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” the statement reads. 

Two of the complaints allege racial harassment, two detail gender harassment and three allege disability discrimination. 

The open investigations are able to be viewed at the Department of Education’s website here.

Last time Carroll ISD was in the spotlight, in December, they rolled back protections for students based on race, gender, religion and sexual orientation. 

“The District is utilizing OCR’s non-discrimination statement, which reflects Carroll ISD ‘does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs and activities and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups,'” Carroll ISD wrote in a statement.

Carroll ISD’s Code of Conduct, now aligned with OCR’s non-discrimination statement, outlaws discrimination against students based on their sex, encompassing the district’s LGBTQ+ students, the district stated. 

But some say the measure guts protections for students based on race, religion, gender and sexual orientation and puts students and the district at risk.

Last September, one family alleged the district discriminated against their child with special needs. The district was facing five civil rights investigations at that time.

Jennifer Schutter’s complaint stems from an incident in the fall of 2021. Her son, who has special needs, was injured at Durham Intermediate School, and, when they discovered the district didn’t have required special needs accommodations or an individual educational plan, they filed a grievance against the school’s now-former principal.

“This has been an ongoing issue for all of the special education parents,” she said. “I was frustrated because I felt like we as a family had done everything that was possible, everything that was available to us to make sure that my son was safe in school.”

Roughly 10 days later, the principal emailed he’d reported Schutter and her husband to Child Protective Services for truancy because their son had missed school. Schutter calls the complaint “ridiculous” because their son and many other special needs students regularly attend private therapy and miss half days of school, a practice that had gone on for years and that the district was already aware of.

“I knew it was retaliatory,” Schutter said. “People can lose their children. We could’ve lost our son.”

When the district wouldn’t act on the perceived retaliation, she filed the civil rights complaint and in July received a letter from the Department of Education confirming it was opening an investigation.

“The federal government probably represents our best hope. I’m also hopeful that the TEA will get involved,” Schutter said.