Wisconsin School District Accused of Racial Discrimination in Lawsuit

JANUARY 19, 2023 - A school district in Wisconsin is facing a lawsuit claiming that they are withholding records around a policy that appears to have instructed staff to discriminate against students based on their race. The Madison Metropolitan School District is accused of directing teachers to prioritize meetings with black students above other groups. The lawsuit was filed by a prominent conservative law firm in the state, the Wisconsin Institute for Law Liberty.

Law Firm Claims School District is Withholding Records

According to the lawsuit, several district employees reached out to Daniel Lennington, a lawyer with the Wisconsin Institute for Law Liberty, to tell him that the Madison Metropolitan School District was directing teachers to prioritize meetings with black students above other groups. Lennington was provided a screen grab that he was told represented official district policy regarding creating small instructional groups for instruction in reading, foundational skills, and math. However, Lennington has been met with delays and lack of response when attempting to access the full policy and related records.

School District Accused of Delaying Response to Records Requests

The lawsuit also cites several other examples of the school district delaying response to records requests. A Wisconsin Institute for Law Liberty (WILL) intern sent a separate records request to the Madison school district for a list of adopted textbooks, which has not been fulfilled. Another request that Lennington made last March for a small number of PDFs took about eight months to fulfill. A local TV news station has also reported on its long wait for records from the school district about a reassigned high school principal. The school district is accused of not dedicating enough staff to handle record requests, which is causing delays in fulfilling requests.

Is it wrong to prioritize some students?

It is not inherently wrong to prioritize support for certain groups of students, such as black students, as long as it is done in a fair and non-discriminatory manner.

However, in this case, the school district is alleged to have directed teachers to prioritize meetings with black students above other groups, which could be discriminatory and could violate the rights of the other students. Additionally, the instruction that teachers should "prioritize your African American students meeting with you first and more often," could imply that they should discriminate against other groups, which is unacceptable.

It's important to note that schools should work to provide equal opportunities and support to all students, regardless of their race. Providing targeted support to certain groups of students can be beneficial, but it needs to be done in a way that does not discriminate against other students.