In three and a half weeks, as Donald Trump returned to the presidency, an investigation by an agency involved in violations of civil rights in schools and colleges of the country stopped.
At the same time, there was a sharp drop in the number of new cases opened by the US Ministry of Education by civil rights-and the few were aimed at investigating some priorities Trump: getting rid of gender-neutral bathrooms that prohibit transgenders to participate in women’s sport And allegedly anti -Semitism or discrimination against white students.
Since the inauguration of Trump OCR has opened about 20 new investigations, the sources in the department reported propublica that a small number compared to similar periods in previous years. For example, during the first three weeks of Biden administration, the office opened about 110 new discrimination investigations based on race, gender, national origin and disability, historical priorities of the office. During the same period last year, more than 250 new cases were opened.
Historically, the bulk of the office investigations were launched after students or their families file complaints. Ever since Trump has taken the post, the focus has passed to “directed investigations”, that is, Trump’s administration has ordered these requests.
“We were unable to open any (investigations) coming from the public,” said one OCR prosecutor, who asked him not to call him, fearing to lose his job.
Several employees said Propublica that they were told not to communicate with students, families and schools involved in the previous administrative cases, and cancel the planned meetings and mediation. “We were, in fact, stupid,” the lawyer said.
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The press -secretary of the education department did not respond to the requests for comment.
Despite the fact that new cases are usually slow during the presidential transition, when new political assigned to acquire their basis and determine priorities, this is not typical for this other than a stop. “With the first Trump administration, of course, everything changed, and there were changes, but we never had this order,” said another OCR lawyer, who also asked him not to call him.
The transition to OCR comes when Trump called the Conservative Education Department and is expected to make the executive order to dismantle the department. In her confirmation on Thursday, Trump’s nominee becomes secretary of education Linda McMahon stated that she did not decide to reduce financing by OCR, As called by Republicans.
This week, Trump administration has stopped contracts for more than $ 900 million This was mainly focused on educational research and the country’s training and school data. Cuts were made by freedom Elona crew Elon MuskKnown as the Department of Government Efficiency, which states that it also ended with dozens of educational grants for educators who considered it wasteful.
Since 1979, ARM Civil Law. It acts in accordance with the mandate in Congress to uphold the 1964 civil rights law, as well as federal laws that prohibit discriminating students from gender or disability.
About 12,000 complaints were in the investigation when Trump took office. The largest proportion of the expected complaints – about 6000 – is associated with students with disabilities who believe that they were harsher or unfairly denied assistance at the school, according to the analysis of the propublica department.
Investigators conducted about 3,200 active complaints about racial discrimination, including unfair discipline and racial harassment. The analysis found that an additional about 1000 complaints were characteristic of sexual harassment or sexual abuse. The rest concerns a number of discrimination requirements.
Students and families often turn to OCR after they feel that their problems have not been solved in school districts. The process is free, which means that even if families cannot afford a lawyer to harass, they can still get help – access to disability services or increase school security, for example.
If OCR finds evidence of discrimination, it can force the school district or college to change its policy or provide students with services and sometimes tracks institutions to make sure they fulfill the implementation.
For example, in the fall, for example, OCR concluded that the rural school district of Pennsylvania could not protect black students from racist ridicule and persecution by a group of white students. White students in the Norwin school district distributed a photo of the “Kool Kids Klub” inscription, wore the confederation clothing, ordered a black student “Go Cat” and used racial epithets, investigators discovered. Initially, the district officials said they did not see problems with white students and did not believe that students had created a racial hostile environment.
But OCR’s findings and corrective actions demanded that the county study several years of complaints about racial harassment and undergo training how best to respond to racial conflict in the area.
The department of the department to prosecute schools if they do not protect students and provide relief in real time – while the student is still studying at school – doing their jobs relevant, said civil rights lawyers and staff of the department.
About 600 education department of about 4,000 employees work at OCR either at Washington’s headquarters or in one of 12 regional offices. According to the gray Smith, the prosecutor OCR and the president of the US Federation of State Workers, the trade union, which provides the staff of the department of education, at least 74 staff of the department, some of whom have been trained for diversity, were put on administrative vacation, according to gray Smith, prosecutor OCR and president of the US Federation of civil servants.
Smith said 15 of these workers on vacation with OCR. According to her, fifty new employees of the education department were fired, including three of OCR.
“The only thing that is clear now is a complete violation of the services we provide and hear from our interested parties,” said Smith, citing the example of the Kentucky family, which appeals to the silence of OCR workers to admit the complaint to the complaint what they would do about how their elementary school coped with the child’s sexual violence.
“It is the members of the public that suffer from these violations,” she said.
Another officer of the department who asked him not to identify, fearing that they could lose his job, stated that a number of students’ complaints were relevant.
“Many of these students are in crisis,” the employee said. “They expect some intervention to return this student to school and graduates or get housing.”
There are students who need help now, the employee said. “And now the federal government literally does nothing.”
The new management of the department has publicly stated that it plans to expand the types of discrimination that the department will study. Among the cases he is investigated is whether one gender toilet in Denver High School discriminates against girls. Acting OCR’s duties even made an unusual step, announcing an investigation into a press release, which was not usually done by previous administrations.
“Let me understand: this is a new day in America, and under the President of Trump, OCR will not transfer discrimination against any kind,” said OCR Craig, the head of the OCR, saying that he ordered civil rights employees to investigate AA in the Denver bathroom The bathroom as it “seems to violate directly students’ civil rights.”
Denver School’s press -secretary, Scott, called the investigation into the “unprecedented” investigation. He added: “This is not the first one at school, but for the first time the investigation was opened by OCR.” The school has other toilets for girls; Only one was transformed into all gender toilet after the students lobby for school administrators.
On Wednesday, the coach again accepted a rigid approach when announced a new investigation into the field of athletics in Minnesota and California, both of them said they would not close women’s transgenders from women’s sports. The administration has already opened three similar investigations against other institutions for alleged violations of the IX header, a federal law that prevents gender discrimination in educational programs in response to Executive order Trump has signed up to ban transgender women and girls to participate in women’s sports.
The States “can participate in the meaningless alarm they want, but eventually they must obey the federal law,” the coach said.
OCR also decided that it would be investigating a complaint filed in August with a flat defense project, a conservative non -profit organization that claims discrimination against white students. The Biden administration did not operate on the complaint, but within a few days the new leaders of the department decided that they would continue the investigation. The complaint states that the city’s city school district in New York excluded white students, holding an event called “Students of the Color Summit”.
University Professor Cornela William Jacobson, who founded a flat defense project, said his organization had filed about 60 complaints over the years in OCR, some of which remain under the investigation. Asked if he thought that the change in the administration helped to quickly track the complaint against Itak, he replied: “I do not see how it could hurt.”
“We want to be clearly fulfilled, and we hope that the department will be more aggressive than in the past,” Jacobson said. “If there are programs that exclude black students, we want the department to follow it, but I don’t know about such programs.”
School of School Itkai refused to comment.
Catherine Lhaman, who overseen OCR according to former Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s presidents, questioned the current administration’s approach to the release of the press. One announcement included a quote from a former collegial athlete who went against transgender women in sports.
“This is very political and assumes the conclusion before OCR has even conducted an investigation,” Lhaman said. According to her, the agency should be a neutral factor.
It seems that the agency has completed its long -term practice of creating a public list of investigated institutions and what type of discrimination is allegedly. It was the last update on January 14, a week before Trump’s inauguration.
We continue to report the US Department of Education. Are you a former employee of the education department? Are you a student or school affected by the change in the department? You can get to our The line of advice On the signal at 917-512-0201. Please be as specific, detailed and clear as you can.
Molly Simon have made research.
