Washington – The Department of Education has retired from an agreement to address disparities in the discipline for American native students in a South Dakota school system, saying that it was unfairly rooted in efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
The decision reflects a change in the interpretation of anti -discriminatory laws According to the administration of President Donald Trump, which plans to review other agreements, the Department of Civil Rights of the Department has reached school systems around the United States.
In question in the Rapid City Area school district there were issues of severe discipline and access to advanced courses for Native studentsthat have been less likely than their white companions of being in high -level classes. A federal investigation found that native students had approximately four times more likely to be suspended and five times more likely to be arrested compared to their white classmates.
Last month, the Department of Education told the district that it would close its fulfillment of compliance, saying that in a letter the agreement violated civil rights laws because Dei was in its foundation.
Some parents who participated in listening sessions with the civil rights office said they felt their effort had been wasted.
“If there is a fight, instead of restoration practices, in our schools, the first thing they do is call the police that are there in schools as resource officers,” said Valeriah Big Eagle, father of three children in the school district and leader in NDN Collective, an indigenous defense group. “We know that the School pipe to prison is real for our children, and the only way we can address that is promoting restorative practices.”
The Department of Education moved away from the case of Rapid City because the resolution focused on racial balance and commissioned its lawyers with “micrognition” how schools disciplined students, said an official of the department.
Bajo Trump, the Department of Education has threatened to reduce the funds of schools that refuse to reject Dei, which his administration has described as discriminatory and illegal. The civil rights office, which was Hardly beaten by staff reductionsMeanwhile, you have prioritized research on Accusations of anti -Semitism.
The reversal of the South Dakota case reflects the efforts of the department to control the decisions at school level on diversity initiatives, regardless of its legal base, said Michael Pillera, director of Educational Capital Affairs in the Lawyer Civil Rights Committee.
“He feels unprecedented and feels extreme,” Pillera said.
The Trump Administration has terminated another civil rights resolution agreement with a school district, a case that involves retired books from a Forsyth County School District in Georgia. But the department official said he will review others.
The civil rights office enters hundreds of resolution agreements per year with districts in cases involving racial harassment, disproportionate discipline, discrimination due to disability and gender discrimination. It may require corrective actions ranging from the resolution of access problems for individual students with disabilities to radical audits of practices throughout the district.
The problems discovered in the rapid city schools around disproportionate discipline and surveillance have long been an area of concern when it comes to preventing discrimination against color students, said Liz King, principal director of the Educational Equity Program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
“The question is, do we care what is the effect of discrimination or not?” King said. “If we are seeing that they are causing disproportionate damage to some groups of students, we must ask difficult questions about whether or not we can justify those policies.”
Rapid City’s investigation began in 2010 and closed in 2024 under the Biden administration.
In interviews with federal researchers, a former superintendent said that the high absenteeism rates owe to some American native tribes that do not value education, and operate in “Indian time”, arriving late. The board fired it last summer about derogatory comments.
In a statement, the interim superintendent of the district, Cory Strasser, said that neither the leadership of the Board nor the district were involved in the decision to terminate the resolution agreement. He said that the district had already done much of the work required by the Resolution Agreement, which was from implicit bias training to a better monitoring of discipline data. He said the work will continue without federal supervision.
“These efforts have positively impacted all students,” said Strasser.
Some in the community concern that the district alone does not continue with the recommendations. Nick Tilsen, founder of the NDN collective based in Rapid City, said it has been flooded with calls from worried parents and students.
“The agreement exists because the School Board of the Rapid City area should be responsible for implementing those provisions,” Tilsen said. “They cannot simply say that they are doing it, because the data already show that they are not implementing these things.”
Darren Thompson, director of relations with the media of the Native Fund of Sacred Defense without profit, said it is the last of a series of federal decisions that affects tribal citizens but did not request contributions from any tribal community. He added that the American native population in South Dakota is unique because many have clearly Indian surnames, such as “black alces”, which can turn them into discrimination objectives in schools or when they look for employment. ___
Associated Press Collin Binkley writer in Washington contributed to this report. Race reported from Sioux Falls, SD
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