(May 1, 2025) Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) issued a thank you on behalf of its client, Dr. Stacy Deemar, to the Trump Administration and the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) following its announcement of investigations into Evanston/Skokie School District 65 in Illinois.
SLF Executive Director Kim Hermann said, “SLF is thankful that the Trump Administration recognizes that enough is enough and, following Dr. Deemar’s new OCR complaint, has launched an investigation into unconscionable racial discrimination in District 65 – Evanston, IL. Ever since the wrongful withdrawal four years ago of the Department of Education’s finding that District 65’s racial segregation, equity training, discipline policy, and race-conscious curriculum violated America’s civil rights laws, Dr. Deemar has waited patiently for the harms inflicted by the Biden Administration to be rectified. For the sake of our children and our country, the time to restore equality and reclaim civil liberties is now.”
Spanning multiple presidential administrations, District 65 (an Evanston, IL public school district) has engaged in unconscionable race-based discrimination through continuous racial segregation and stigmatized, including separating staff into affinity groups during trainings, teaching students that white people use colorblindness to perpetuate racism, and forcing staff and students to participate in “privilege walks.”
Deemar first reported these practices to OCR in 2019. After conducting a thorough investigation, OCR determined in January 2021 that the District violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. But just days after President Biden took office, OCR withdrew that finding without explanation. This withdrawal was unprecedented and left District 65 free to treat its students, parents, and teachers differently solely because of their skin color.
SLF’s official complaint argues, “After all, ‘[o]ur Constitution is color-blind’ and ‘Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not [tolerate racial preferences] either.’ The District may think it can answer to a higher calling, but no one is morally superior to the law. When the District ‘furthers ‘stereotypes that treat individuals as the product of their race,’ it is not remediating anything. Instead, it inflicts ‘continued hurt and injury’ that are contrary to the ‘core purpose’ of the Equal Protection Clause.”
Download press release.
