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DeVos Education Dept. Dismissing Civil Rights Cases Simply Because There's Too Many
Betsy DeVos is destroying the Department of Education and in turn our students and future. The Education Department has issued a new manual allowing officials to dismiss hundreds of civil rights complaints, basically because it would be a lot of work to evaluate all of them. There's so many complaints that it's best to just ignore them all. That's what DeVos and her cronies think. Disgusting.
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has begun dismissing hundreds of civil rights complaints under a new protocol that allows investigators to disregard cases that are part of serial filings or that they consider burdensome to the office.
....the new provision was part of the office’s revision of its manual that lays out procedures for processing civil rights cases. The manual’s new provisions allow the department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to toss out complaints that.... place "an unreasonable burden on O.C.R.’s resources."
So far, the provision has resulted in the dismissal of more than 500 disability rights complaints.
This rightfully has everyone paying attention up in arms.
The changes worry civil rights groups, which point out that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has already rescinded guidances meant to protect students against sexual assaults on campuses and black and transgender students against bias.
...civil rights advocates worry that the office’s rejection of legitimate claims is the most obvious example to date of its diminishing role in enforcing civil rights laws in the nation’s schools.
In response, the National Federation of the Blind, the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates and the NAACP are suing the Education Department.
Civil rights groups sued the Education Department (DOE) on Thursday over a new manual allowing officials to start dismissing hundreds of civil rights complaints. They argue... that DeVos violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act and Jackson acting unlawfully by carrying out the new provisions. The groups requested that a judge block the Education Department from enforcing the provisions.
Meanwhile in Bryan, Texas, a real time example that can be read about fully at this link:
The U.S. Department of Education was investigating why black students in Bryan, Texas, are almost four times as likely as white students to be suspended. Then Betsy DeVos took over.
Flooded with about 1,500 complaints related to racial discrimination in school discipline between 2011 and 2017, the Obama administration made the issue a priority.
Quietly...one of DeVos’ top officials ordered investigators to limit proactive civil rights probes... Since then, the Education Department has closed at least 65 school discipline investigations.... including the Bryan probe, without any mandated reforms....
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/us/politics/devos-education-department-civil-rights.html