Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Douglas Belkin and Jacob Gershman discuss the historic lawsuit filed by Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) on behalf of a teacher seeking to stop the school district in Evanston, Illinios from discriminating against its teachers and students because of the color of their skin.
Belkin and Gershman note:
A middle school drama teacher in a suburb of Chicago has filed a discrimination lawsuit against her school district alleging that mandated antiracist training has created a hostile environment for white students and educators.
The complaint, filed in federal court Tuesday by a conservative-leaning public interest law firm, is the latest in a growing number of federal lawsuits that allege teachings related to race and racial identity in public schools are discriminatory and have suppressed free expression. In the past year, school boards around the country have faced protests and lawsuits over classroom curriculum and school policies—sometimes referred to as “critical race theory”—that litigants say put forward racial stereotyping and political activism.
The latest complaint comes from Stacy Deemar, a white teacher in a K-8 school district in Evanston and Skokie, IIl., just north of Chicago. She alleges that teachers and students are required to participate in racially segregated antiracist exercises and that teachers are required to teach material depicting white people as inherently racist oppressors.
The suit alleges the district’s policies violate the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination by race, color or national origin in public schools.
Read the full article at WSJ.com.