MA School District’s Racially Segregated ‘Healing Space’ Explicitly Excluded White Students

A parents group has filed a federal civil rights complaint alleging that a Massachusetts school district excluded White students from a healing space designated for other racial and ethnic groups.

According to the Parents Defending Education (PDE) complaint, Wellesley Public Schools sent an invitation to Asian American, Black, Indigenous and people of color students to attend the event, explicitly disallowing Whites.

An email stated that the event was hosted by the “WPS Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” It was designated for students in 6-12 grade and “faculty/staff.”

“*Note: This is a safe space for our Asian/Asian-American and Students of Color, *not* for students who identify only as White,” a March 2021 email read.

The email from March adds: “If you identify as White, and need help to process recent events, please know I’m here for you as well as your guidance counselors. If you need to know more about why this is not for White students, please ask me!”

The complaint, obtained by Fox News on Wednesday, contains a screenshot of the email but it’s unclear from the photo who within the district sent it. PDE told Fox News via email that the sender was a seventh grade teacher.

PDE filed the complaint last week with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. {snip}

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PDE’s filing included a screenshot of an email purportedly from Wellesley Public Schools Superintendent Dr. David Lussier, and Dr. Charmie Curry, who serves as its director of diversity, equity and inclusion. The email, which came after the initial event, said the district had come to “unequivocally affirm the importance of ‘affinity spaces.’”

It described those as spaces “where members of historically marginalized groups can come together in a spirit of mutual support and understanding of shared experiences.”

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