Legal group files suit against Illinois school district alleging 'segregation' and 'racial division'

A legal foundation filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming an Illinois school district is discriminating against its teachers and students on the basis of race through "illegal and unconstitutional" teacher-training methods and curriculum.

The Southeastern Legal Foundation filed the suit against the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 on behalf of a teacher in the district.

The foundation argues the district's training programs, school curriculum and overall policies and procedures violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act because they treat people differently solely based on the color of their skin.

"By vowing to define its teachers and students solely by their race, District 65 promotes and reinforces a view of race essentialism that divides Americans into groups based solely on their skin color," Kimberly Hermann, the foundation's general counsel,  said in a statement. "District 65 teaches its teachers and students that their whole identity comes from the color of their skin. It teaches them to hate each other. It teaches them not only how to be racist but that they should be racist. This is illegal, wrong, and must be stopped."

The suit alleges that teachers were required to attend mandatory "antiracist" training that "included segregating teachers into racially exclusive affinity groups, requiring them to engage in racial discrimination against each other." 

The lawsuit also alleges teachers had to participate in "mandatory privilege walks where they were segregated by their color," where they were "conditioned to see each other’s skin color first and foremost."

In addition, the suit claims students also had to undergo the same training, including receiving comments such as "white people have a very, very serious problem and they should start thinking about what they should do about it."

The foundation is asking the court to halt the district's practices, though it is unclear how or when the court will decide on the matter.