A Wisconsin law firm is accusing the Green Bay School District of violating a student’s civil rights after a parent alleged her son was denied access to resources because of his race.
Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sent a letter Dec. 9 to Green Bay Schools Superintendent Vicki Bayer and the district on behalf of Colbey Decker, who alleged the district denied her son a one-on-one reading intervention because of his race. Decker’s son is white.
The complaint stems from King Elementary’s student success plan, which states in its literacy strategy that it focuses on “intentional work educating our focus students, prioritizing additional resources to First Nations, Black and Hispanic students.”
“This policy, while purporting to address disparities, discriminates against students of other races who are equally in need of support,” the letter said. “The district’s policy fails to treat students as individuals and disregards their unique needs.”
WILL is demanding the district rescind the plan, adopt a colorblind approach to resource allocation and provide immediate and adequate reading support to Decker’s son. It asked that a change be made by Dec. 16; if no change is made, it will consider “all legal avenues.”
If we need to go through a lawsuit to gather more details and prove the discrimination under this school’s policy, we will,” WILL education counsel Cory Brewer said.
The district’s reading goals policy states that the district reading program’s objective is to “provide effective instruction in reading and literacy for all students, including providing timely and appropriate learning assistance to any student who may be experiencing difficulty with reading and related literacy skills.”
However, it also establishes priority performance goals, which are “established based on data that shows the district is meeting the needs of some student groups better than others.”
“The District received the letter from WILL yesterday and we are investigating the allegations. However, we can state unequivocally that the District does not have a policy that includes the language included in the letter. All District policies must be approved by the Board of Education and no such policy language exists,” the district said in a statement.
Decker reached out to WILL after her son, who has dyslexia, was placed on a waitlist for reading intervention in April after she made formal requests for one-on-one intervention, according to a WILL news release. In the fall, her son was placed in a small group intervention program after help from a classroom teacher. The delay in support hurt his progress in school, the letter states.
Decker alleges he would’ve been treated more favorably if he were a member of one of King’s priority groups, and that he was denied access to these resources because he is white.
WILL said the policy violates Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. It alleges the district excluded Decker’s son from equal access to educational resources, and states the policy assumes certain racial groups need help because of their race.
“Our client’s son is not even on an equal playing field to get services that he needs,” Brewer said.
According to King’s report card, the school’s white students statistically perform higher than the average student population. About 30% of white students at King scored proficient or advanced on the English Language Arts forward exam compared to 16.7% of all students. Most minority groups had too few students to provide data.
Contact Green Bay education reporter Nadia Scharf at nscharf@gannett.com or on X at @nadiaascharf.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay school accused of civil rights violation
