SOUTHLAKE, Texas — For years, Carroll ISD has been the face of educational culture wars and battles over inclusivity.
In the past year, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened five discrimination investigations in the district, all are ongoing.
None of the families behind the five complaints have publicly spoken before, but Jennifer Schutter is sharing her story because she believes it can help lead to change.
“I think that the outside world is really shocked about what’s going on down here,” she said. “The problem is our behaviors. The media and certain members of this community are only holding up a mirror to what’s going on down here.”
Schutter has had one child who used to be in Carroll and two others who are currently students. Two of the five investigations came from complaints Schutter filed, but she could only discuss one because of ongoing litigation.
“We in Carroll ISD, in this community, are running out of options,” she said. “We need accountability.”
Her complaint stems from an incident in the fall of 2021. Her son, who has special needs, was injured at Durham Intermediate School, and, when they discovered the district didn’t have required special needs accommodations or an individual educational plan, they filed a grievance against the school’s now-former principal.
“This has been an ongoing issue for all of the special education parents,” she said. “I was frustrated because I felt like we as a family had done everything that was possible, everything that was available to us to make sure that my son was safe in school.”
Roughly 10 days later, the principal emailed he’d reported Schutter and her husband to Child Protective Services for truancy because their son had missed school. Schutter calls the complaint “ridiculous” because their son and many other special needs students regularly attend private therapy and miss half days of school, a practice that had gone on for years and that the district was already aware of.
“I knew it was retaliatory,” Schutter said. “People can lose their children. We could’ve lost our son.”
When the district wouldn’t act on the perceived retaliation, she filed the civil rights complaint and in July received a letter from the Department of Education confirming it was opening an investigation.
“The federal government probably represents our best hope. I’m also hopeful that the TEA will get involved,” Schutter said.
Through an open records request, WFAA has learned the other open civil rights investigations involve discrimination around national origin, race and sexual identity at Dawson Middle School, Carroll High School and Carroll Senior High School.
“It’s marginalized groups and if anyone is marginalized and voiceless in this community, it’s special education students,” Schutter said.
In a statement responding to the investigations, the district said, “Carroll ISD is fully cooperating with this process and diligently pulling all documents requested. OCR complaints involve student situations; therefore, due to the Family Educational Rights to Privacy Act (FERPA), we are unable to provide or share any more specifics at this time.”
When the initial three investigations were opened, Superintendent Dr. Lane Ledbetter swore to agree to follow any recommendations from the Department of Education.
“If OCR determines that there are steps that we can take beyond what we have implemented, then we will absolutely comply,” Ledbetter said in Zoom video to the community. “My priorities are kids, and we’re going to keep them safe.”
Schutter says the district’s school board has shown a willingness to take up district issues around what she calls “apathy” towards special education, but she believes becoming more inclusive will take more work from both administrators and the community.
“We need to focus on keeping politics out of education. That’s really going to be the way we fix our district and our public schools,” she said. “Our administration should be primarily focused on doing the right thing for every child in this district.”