Anti-Affirmative Action Group Accuses New York State School District of Discriminating Against White Students

An anti-affirmative action group filed a civil rights complaint against a New York state school district, accusing it of systematically excluding White students for an event for “students of color.”

The Ithaca City School District (ICSD) promoted a Students of Color Summit 2024 on Ithaca High School’s campus earlier this year that said the event was for “Students of Color in grades 6-12.” After backlash, the district apologized for using “exclusionary language” and all students were ultimately welcomed to the event. But the Equal Protection Project (EPP), a nonprofit that opposes racial discrimination in any form, sent the complaint to the U.S. Department of Education suggesting White students were being discriminated against for years.

The complaint, which has been obtained by Fox News Digital and can be seen here, accused ICSD of systematically excluding White students from SOCU Summits “with the knowledge and the participation of dozens of teachers and administrators, knowledge of the Board of Education, and despite multiple complaints about the racially discriminatory practices from members of the community” over a 4-year period from 2021-2024.

“The Frequently Asked Questions section of the official SOCU Summit website even included an explanation as to ‘Why aren’t White students invited?’ and required that registering students ‘acknowledge that this is a Student of Color ONLY event,’” the complaint said.

“The discrimination was not a mere ‘communication’ problem, it reflected systemic discrimination against White students as to SOCU Summits,” the complaint continued. “It is hard to imagine more open, prolonged, and intentional racial discrimination, despite ICSD’s denials.”

The EPP asked the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to open an investigation and to take remedial measures regarding the “systemic racial discrimination at ICSD against White students regarding SOCU Summits during 2021-2024” and “whether ICSD made material misrepresentations to OCR in 2023” when the ICSD said the District’s programming is open to all participants regardless of race while simultaneously “excluding” White students.

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The complaint included various emails and screenshots of ICSD noting the events were for non-White students. Among the examples is an email sent from a Summit organizer who complained “we are being forced to include White students due to a complaint that we are engaging in segregation” that was sent after the school board apologized for using “exclusionary language.”

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