Did Pickens Middle School, and other schools in South Carolina, violate Federal anti-discrimination laws by specifically excluding white children from an activities program opened up to all students except white kids? Is this reverse discrimination or more proof of ‘critical race theory’? Photo courtesy Pickens Middle School website.

Parents in Pickens County, SC, don’t like discrimination, especially against their kids. Sometimes ‘good intentions’ which are not thought out properly can go bad. We all know the old adage of ‘good intentions’ paving the road to… well, you know.

Such is the case that occurred last week at Pickens Middle School in Pickens, SC. Perhaps, the principal thought he was doing something good on how to address a situation of racial tensions at the school. The outcome is proving otherwise.

Ultimately, what this principal failed to do was think about what the consequences might be of segregating the students by race for a “special” lunch with a guest speaker.

Discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance are prohibited. It would seem that the principal should have contacted the School District’s lawyer for advice on his plan. The overview of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, Title VI of the Civil rights Act of 1964, states as follows:

Title VI, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d et seq., was enacted as part of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. As President John F. Kennedy said in 1963:

Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races [colors, and national origins] contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial [color or national origin] discrimination.

 

If a recipient of federal assistance is found to have discriminated and voluntary compliance cannot be achieved, the federal agency providing the assistance should either initiate fund termination proceedings or refer the matter to the Department of Justice for appropriate legal action. Aggrieved individuals may file administrative complaints with the federal agency that provides funds to a recipient, or the individuals may file suit for appropriate relief in federal court. Title VI itself prohibits intentional discrimination. However, most funding agencies have regulations implementing Title VI that prohibit recipient practices that have the effect of discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

As of the Wednesday (April 21st) the controversial situation went viral on Facebook having over 1,000 comments. Now, the principal, as well as the school board and district administration of the School District of Pickens County are getting plenty of backlash over his plan.

Please note NOT ALL PARENTS received prior notification of the “special” lunch being planned with the guest speaker who was going to address the racial tensions. Only parents of non-white children were notified. Most parents and white students weren’t even aware of the “special” lunch program with the speaker until the students of color bragged about receiving their “special” invitation.

Below is an email sent by a concerned citizen over this incident that describes what took place. The email was sent to SC Attorney General Alan Wilson, SC Governor Henry McMaster, Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman, and many Columbia legislators.

To: The Honorable Alan Wilson, Attorney General of South Carolina

CC: Governor H. McMaster, Lt. Governor P. Evette, Superintendent of Education M. Spearman, SC House Committee on Education and Public Works, SC Senate Committee on Education, Representative D. Hiott (Pickens), Senator R. Rice (Easley)

Dear Attorney General:

It has been brought to my attention that during the week of April 11th 2022 the Pickens Middle School in Pickens, South Carolina planned and conducted a series of presentations by a guest speaker in which the school segregated students by skin color. The students were given special lunch sessions and divided into the following groups: “African-American,” “Hispanic,” and “Two or More Backgrounds.” Students who did not fall into these categories, such as white, Asian, and others, were not invited and were excluded from these special presentations and lunch meals. This appears to be a direct violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VI, which prohibits excluding individuals from programs or activities on the grounds of race, color, or national origin by entities receiving Federal financial assistance.

According to letters and emails from the school Principal, Mr. James King, the segregation of students by race was intentional to allow the guest speaker, Ms. Adrienne Young, “a chance to talk with students about how to cope with being a student in a predominantly white school.” Setting aside how this is highly inappropriate and just plain racist, a glaring irony must have eluded the school’s leadership and the guest speaker in that the subject of her talk was “unity at schools.”

Please see the attached email and letter received by the school’s parents indicating specific lunch times their students were assigned:

The “dynamic speaker,” Ms. Young, is a counselor at Banks Trail Middle School in Fort Mill and describes herself on her LinkedIn account as an “influencer…impacting the lives of middle schoolers.” Is segregating and excluding students by race and teaching them how to “cope with” white students the kind of influence and impact the SC Department of Education is advancing?  Ms. Spearman (copied here), as the Superintendent of Education, would you kindly provide a response with your position on this? Would you also please reconcile how such presentations Ms. Young is conducting fits with your statements that Critical Race Theory is not taught in SC schools?

Mr. Wilson, would you please review and investigate this incident, as well as similar presentations given by Ms. Young at other school campuses as alluded to by Mr. King in his letter, and pursue all appropriate legal action as it merits under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and specifically regulation 34 C.F.R. §§ I00.3(a), I00.3(b)(l), and nondiscriminatory statutes of the SC Human Affairs Law? For reference, I am attaching a determination issued by the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights in a similar case where a school segregated students and staff by race into “affinity groups” during race trainings and programs. The parents and students of Pickens Middle School are—quite justifiably—very upset with this and would have legal standing in court.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST

Another interesting outcome is the fact the video of the hired speaker, Adrienne Young’s speech she prepared has since been removed and no longer available for parents or taxpayers to view.

Here is a screenshot of Ms. Young admitting on social media she made the video.

Luckily, I was able to view the video of her prepared speech BEFORE it was deleted. The speech was pretty innocuous and mostly a cheerleading speech of “rah, rah” let’s all unite and love one another. However, I was shocked when toward the end when she was trying to make the point about how diverse our leaders are in Washington, D.C., she couldn’t resist the temptation of expressing her own personal political views by declaring how much she loved Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (known as AOC). We all know AOC and her love of Socialism and replacing our Constitutional Republic with her dream of what the USA “should be”.

As a former teacher, it is my opinion that speakers who are hired on the taxpayer dime who will have influence and inspire young students whose minds are very malleable during middle school years should not express their personal political leanings one way or the other. After all, she was hired to promote unity not divisiveness.

It will be interesting to see just how many parents in Pickens County School District show up at the next school board meeting to speak during public forum and express their concerns over this situation. Judging from what I am hearing, I think the school board is going to get an earful from disgruntled parents and taxpayers. Will the policy change, and the notifying of all parents, if there will be a speaker influencing children’s minds? Will there be lawsuits over discrimination? Time will tell. In the meantime, it would behoove any school district that plans on having any program or activity that might be divisive or considered “racist” to get approval from parents first, and their school district’s lawyer ahead of time.

Johnnelle Raines is a retired public school teacher of 29 years in the classroom. She is also a Board Member of the United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE).

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