The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on Friday launched a comprehensive investigation into Evanston-Skokie School District 65 following a complaint alleging the district engages in racial segregation and stereotyping in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) filed the complaint on behalf of Dr. Stacy Deemar, a teacher in the district.
According to the complaint, the district’s practices, including “privilege walks” and racially segregated affinity groups for both students and staff, form the basis of the alleged discrimination and stereotyping.
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“The policies and practices to which the District allegedly subjects students and teachers shocks the conscience,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement. He added that amid academic challenges, the district appears to be focusing on unlawfully segregating students and promoting concepts that associate “whiteness” with negative ideas. Trainor linked the investigation to a shift in enforcement priorities under the current administration, stating, “This Department of Education will not allow districts that receive federal funding to become safe spaces for racial segregation or any other unlawful discriminatory practices.”
Kimberly Hermann, Executive Director of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, welcomed the investigation.
“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,” Hermann said. She referenced a previous complaint filed by Dr. Deemar that a prior OCR investigation under the first Trump administration found the district violated Title VI, but which the Biden administration later dismissed. Hermann stated that Dr. Deemar had “waited patiently for the harms inflicted by the Biden Administration to be rectified.”
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The complaint outlines several specific district policies and practices that allegedly constitute racial discrimination and stereotyping:
- Directing staff and students to participate in racially segregated “privilege walks.”
- Sponsoring “affinity groups” for students and staff that are formally restricted by race, including separate groups for “individuals of color” and those who identify as “White.”
- Conducting training seminars on “racial literacy” that allegedly employed racial stereotypes, such as characterizing “white talk” as “loud, authoritative…[and] controlling” and “color commentary” as “silent respect… and disconnect.”
- Pressuring educators to “acknowledge white skin privilege” and “fully examine the cultural implications of Whiteness in schools.”
- Instructing young students, some as young as four, to be “activist[s] and…actively anti-racist” and to “understand that our country has a racist history and is grounded in white privilege.”
- Requiring Pre-K through fifth-grade teachers to read aloud and discuss a book that allegedly compares “whiteness” to making a deal with the devil, including an image depicting a white man with a devil’s tail and a “whiteness” contract for profit at the expense of “humans of COLOR.”
- Employing lesson plans for third through fifth graders that encourage students to “disrupt the Western nuclear family dynamics.”
This is the second time Dr. Stacy Deemar, a drama teacher, has filed a complaint against the district with OCR through SLF. Her initial complaint in 2019 led to an OCR finding of Title VI violations by the end of the first Trump administration. However, that complaint was dismissed by the Biden administration in 2024. SLF alleges that the district continued its discriminatory practices after the dismissal.
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Evanston-Skokie School District 65 has issued a statement acknowledging the investigation and expressing its intention to cooperate with OCR to reach a “just and expeditious resolution.” The district stated it will “continue to fulfill the intent and promise of equal protection and nondiscrimination embodied in the Constitution and our nation’s civil rights laws,” and that the complaint “misrepresents our District’s lawful and important professional learning and student-focused initiatives that are designed to advance the work of ensuring that all students have access and opportunity to a robust, high quality education.”
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. A finding of non-compliance with Title VI can result in the loss of federal funding for the institution.
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