Lawsuit forces school district to end racial affinity groups

BOSTON (TND) — A Boston-area public school district will end racially segregated “affinity groups” after settling with nonprofit Parents Defending Education (PDE).

The nonprofit, which says it empowers concerned citizens to become more engaged in the U.S. education system, sued the district last year. In the suit, PDE argued Wellesley Public Schools' use of racially segregated “affinity groups” violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Massachusetts Students’ Freedom of Expression Law.

This settlement sends a clear message that racially segregating students in public schools is wrong – and there will be consequences,” said the president of PDE Nicole Neily. “We have spent decades teaching our kids that racial segregation was and will always be wrong. We will not tolerate a return to segregation in 2022.

The lawsuit also challenged Wellesley Public Schools’ “Bias Reporting Procedure,” which gave school officials the ability to punish speech deemed “offensive” or considered to show “conscious or unconscious bias,” according to PDE. The district suspended the procedure shortly after the suit was filed, the nonprofit reported.

Thirteen other public school districts across the country implement similar “affinity groups” for staff, students or both, according to PDE.

A public middle school in New York Cityreportedly separated students by race during discussions on race and identity. In Denver, a public elementary school came under fire for appearing to holdracially segregated playground nights. Meanwhile, aschool district in Texas asked participants of a summit on race and equity to self-identify and separate themselves by race.

While some believe there is evidence showing “racial affinity groups” improve diversity, critics argue this is not the case. The American Enterprise Institute’s Director of Education Policy and Studies Rick Hess pointed out there is little research backing up the benefits of racial affinity groups.

A comprehensive search of the academic databases ProQuest and Google Scholar returns just five articles purporting to examine the benefits of ‘racial affinity’ spaces in K–12 schooling (related articles focus on things such as video games or community centers),” said Hess. “This is an astonishingly tiny figure, especially when compared to the thousands of studies on teacher evaluation, school choice, or math instruction—topics where the evidence is nonetheless regarded as hotly contested.

Hess called it “a stretch” to imply the minimal research he was able to uncover constitutes “evidence” the practice works the way proponents of racial affinity groups say they do.

The National Desk reached out to Wellesley Public Schools for comment but did not hear back ahead of publication. This story will be updated if a response is received.