An Atlanta mother has reportedly filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education alleging her children’s elementary school placed Black students in separate classrooms from their peers based on race.
Kila Posey has two children who attend Mary Lin Elementary School in Atlanta and claims the school “had been formulated, in part, based upon race of the students” during the 2020-21 academic year, a complaint by her attorney reads, according to CNN.
Posey says the principal assigned two teachers’ classes as the “Black classes,” with around 13 Black second-grade students being assigned only to those two classes.
“To our knowledge, (the principal) designated these Black classes without the knowledge or consent of the families of the affected Black students. Instead, she unilaterally decided what was in the best interests of the Black students, relegating them to only those classes she deemed appropriate,” Posey wrote in the complaint. “Meanwhile, the placement of white students was not restricted; they were able to be placed in any of the six second grade classes.”
Additionally, the complaint reveals that the assistant principal at the school admitted in a recorded phone conversation that she was aware of the racial separation and noted that “class lists are always tough” and that she wished the school had more Black children.
According to data from the Georgia Department of Education, Mary Lin Elementary’s second-grade class has 98 students – 12 of whom are Black and 81 are white.
Ian Smith, who heads the Atlanta Public Schools’ Office of Communications and Public Engagement, told CNN the district has conducted a review of the allegations and “appropriate actions were taken to address the issue and the matter was closed.
“Atlanta Public Schools does not condone the assigning of students to classrooms based on race,” he added.
Posey, though, says she wants more done about the alleged segregation and that she and her husband faced retaliation for expressing their concerns. She’s asking the Office of Civil Rights to help “end the practice of designating certain classes as the only classes that black students can be placed in at Mary Lin.”
“In addition, I would like APS (Atlanta Public Schools) to remove the entire leadership team at Mary Lin,” Posey wrote in her request.
