A suburban Chicago school system entered an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to address Black students' racial harassment during the 2021-22 school year.
The school district in Beecher, Ill., entered the resolution agreement to ensure compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when responding to reports of racial harassment, according to DOE's June 5 news release.
"The important steps Beecher Community Unit School District 200U has agreed to take to address and prevent racial harassment are designed to ensure that their full school community will learn in the nondiscriminatory environment federal law promises to them," DOE Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon said in the news release.
The agreement follows DOE's investigation into the school district to assess the handling of racial harassment directed toward Black students and to determine whether the district effectively addressed those issues, the release reported.
The investigation uncovered alarming incidents, such as allowing Confederate flag images in classroom presentations, racially offensive Snapchat messages circulated during school hours and a white student's use of a derogatory screenname, the release said. Other reported incidents included frequent use of racial slurs and white students who exhibited disruptive behavior towards Black students while disembarking from a school bus.
The OCR investigation identified concerns the district did not conduct adequate investigations of possible racially harassing conduct, did not appear to consider the totality of the circumstances and the cumulative effects of the racial harassment; and did not appear to take steps reasonably designed to prevent the harassment from recurring and remedy the effects of the harassment on students, the release said.
Under the resolution agreement, the school district made commitments to tackle racial harassment, ensure timely investigations into racial harassment allegations and provide remedies that would include compensatory education and counseling, according to the release.
The district also agreed to training sessions about policies and procedures for school administrators, faculty and staff, in addition to mandatory orientation sessions for students and a school climate survey, the release reported. Additionally, the district also agreed to maintain comprehensive documentation of racial harassment complaints.
