A New York school district apologized for using “exclusionary language” to promote a non-white event.
Ithaca City School District advertised a Students of Color United Summit 2024 on Ithaca High School’s campus, open solely to “students of color,” according to Fox News. This event sparked the attention of The Equal Protection Project, and on May 28, the EPP wrote a letter to the Superintendent, Luvelle Brown, and Board of Education President Sean Eversley Bradwell, accusing the ICSD of instigating racial discrimination on high school campuses.
“It is disheartening to see that ICSD has hosted and planned to host a Student of Color summit which was open to students and faculty ‘of color’ and from which Whites are excluded,” William A. Jacobson, Equal Protection Project founder, said. “The time has come for ICSD to live up to both the law and the spirit of the Brown case [Brown v. Board of Education] and to stop racial segregation in school programming once and for all.”
Less than two days after EPP's letter was sent out, ICSD sent an email to all district students and teachers, opening the event to everyone and apologizing for using “exclusionary language," according to Fox News.
“The Students of Color United (SOCU) Summit will be held this Friday, May 31, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Ithaca High School,” the ICSD communications staff said in an email obtained by FOX News Digital. “Please know that SOCU is open to all of our secondary students. We apologize for any previous communication that included exclusionary language about the event.”
The letter sent by EPP said there are many reasons why the ICSD is not “permitted” to segregate students by race, and the ICSD “knows” all of them. The EPP “accused” the ICSD of violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits federally funded recipients from engaging in racial or ethnic discrimination.
The letter said ICSD emailed staff members to tell them they could help students register for the summit, but “allies were not invited” because the event was designed for “students of color to interact with each other.”
“We understand in the context that the word ‘allies’ refers to White students and staff,” the letter said. “In fact, the message goes on to invite only non-White staff, stating: ‘If you are a staff member of color and would like to attend the summit with our students, please email.’”
The letter then said the ICSD has been committing the same racial and ethnic discrimination for previous summits. The letter then listed examples of how the ICSD promoted earlier summits.
“In June 2023, ICSD posted on social media: ‘The third-annual Students of Color United (SOCU) Summit took place on June 7th! The affinity event welcomed students of color from all ICSD secondary schools….,’” the letter said.
The letter also asked school board officials to hold records related to the event because they would be a Freedom of Information Law request.
Whether ICSD decided to run the event or not, the EPP wanted to ensure that ICSD never repeated the same "improper" actions again.
"ICSD still needs to inform students and staff that the announced racial barrier was improper," the letter said. "Such barriers not only are contrary to law, they are contrary to ICSD policies, and part of remedying the damage from past and planned segregated events is to make clear that such practices are not ICSD policy."