On Tuesday morning, May 28, 2024, the Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) delivered a letter (full embed at bottom of post) to the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) Superintendent Dr. Luvelle Brown and Board of Education President Dr. Sean Eversley Bradwell, regarding the Student of Color United (SOCU) Summit 2024, scheduled for May 31, 2024.
In the letter, we detailed substantial evidence that for 2021-2023, the SOCU Summits were limited to students and staff ‘of color’ and that the 2024 Summit promoted the same racial exclusion. See our post for all the specifics, Ithaca (NY) Public Schools Must Desegregate “Students of Color” Summit, Demands Equal Protection Project.
Given the evidence we presented, and additional evidence we have asked for through a Freedom of Information Law request filed contemporaneously with the letter, we wrote:
“It appears that these 2021-2023 annual Students of Color United summits were promoted and conducted as racially exclusionary, and that SOCU 2024 is following in that path. We don’t think you will seriously dispute this.”
Among other things, we called on the Superintendent to
“… publicly denounce and renounce past and planned segregationist programs, and open up the upcoming SOCU Summit to all students and staff without regard to race.It is particularly important for you to do this promptly and publicly, because based on past practice and current promotions, white students and staff likely would be dissuaded from attending on the assumption they are not invited. ICSD needs not only to open the SOCU Summit to all students and staff, ICSD needs to inform all students and staff that the racial barrier has been removed.”
As of this writing, we have not received a response from ICSD.
At a Board of Education meeting last night, May 28, 2024, however, Dr. Brown presented his report to the Board (starting at 1:02:20), the first part of which had to do with criticism he has received over school performance. Then he turned to EPP’s letter (without naming us)(starting at 1:04.25), raising a straw man argument addressing attempts to stop affinity groups, an argument not made in our letter. Our point, addressed in the law laid out in the letter, addressed racial exclusion in public schools. We have not challengd whether ICSD can have affinity events, but because it is a public school, the events have to be open to everyone regardless of race. As our letter pointed out in detail, ICSD does not appear to have lived to that standard. Dr. Brown did not address the specifics in our letter at all.
He did, however, deny that any students ever were excluded from any event based on identity or race, and proclaimed that the SOCU 2024 Summit was “open to everyone” (starting at 1:05:50)
“No program in this school district excludes young people based on ethnicity or any other reason…. I’ve said publicly, we do not exclude anybody …. we want everybody else to know that they can come too. So no, we do not exclude based on identity or race. It’s open to everyone.”
When watching Dr. Brown’s statement, I kept thinking back the words quoted in our letter spoken by a Board of Education member at a public meeting after the first Student of Color United Summit in 2021:
“We’ve had some people ask us as a Board, I’m sure Dr. Brown has heard this, why would we support something that separates young people out by the color of their skin?”
And to the line quoted in our letter from an email/message from a supervisory-level ISCD staff member regarding SOCU 2024:
“Allies are not invited to this event.”
I was contacted by a reporter for a local NPR affiliate, who first called my attention to Dr. Brown’s comments, and requested my response. Here is the response I sent her:
“In our letter to ICSD, the Equal Protection Project documented the racially exclusionary history of the Students of Color United Summits, and the promotion of this year’s Summit as limited to students and staff ‘of color.’ Dr. Brown did not address the substance of our letter in his public comments. Nonetheless, I am glad that Dr. Brown has stated that the SOCU Summit will be open to all. That message of openness needs to be promoted vigorously and immediately to the ICSD community, because a contrary message of exclusion has been communicated previously, as detailed in our Letter to ICSD.”
Time and investigation will shed more light and reveal more evidence. We will continue to investigate and follow up on this issue, as long as it takes.
The following mass email was sent by ICSD:
From: ICSD Communications <xxxxxxx@icsd.k12.ny.us>Date: Thu, May 30, 2024 at 09:12Subject: SOCU Summit is tomorrow, Friday, May 31!To: ICSD Communications <xxxxxxx@icsd.k12.ny.us>Greetings Students and Staff,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.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. Anyone who wishes to attend on Friday is welcome!Let the front office at your school know if you want to attend by the end of the day today, Thursday, May 30, and transportation will be provided as necessary.
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