Department of Justice visits Madison County schools to evaluate anti-discrimination agreement
Originally published by WEKU.
Members of the U.S. Department of Justice visited schools in Madison County last week as part of an agreement made last year to address discrimination complaints.
The agreement came after complaints of harassment towards the school district’s Black students, including the use of slurs and other remarks from their peers.
Last year’s investigation from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division found the district didn’t properly address those complaints. The settlement also found the school district engaged in harsher discipline of Black students compared to white students.
Since then, the Madison County School District has been working on professional development and diversity training. They’ve also hired a team of equal opportunity staff to help ensure equity among the student population.
Madison County School District spokesperson Erin Stewart says the visit is to make sure the district is making progress.
“The purpose really was for them to travel throughout the district and observe in several of our schools, meet with some staff members, some administrators, principals, folks of that nature, and just kind of get a feel for how things are progressing,” Stewart said.
DOJ officials also met with the local NAACP branch during a public meeting.
Karla Willis, a member of the branch and a retired educator, says the group would like to see more communication on how they’re handling the agreement, and more public involvement.
“It was suggested that since we don’t hear at the board meetings, a regular report about the agreement, we can request to be on the agenda,” Willis said. “That may be one of the things we will do. It’s just an example.”
DOJ officials will visit the school district annually for as long as the agreement is in place.
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Originally published by WEKU.
Republished with permission.
