Highland Park High School canceled the field trip after a retired teacher filed a discrimination complaint.
The St. Paul High School district in Minnesota has established career events for students who “identify as students of color” to help them get exposed to digital marketing and advertising careers, Minnesota's Star Tribune reported. Retired Professor Mark Perry responded by claiming he violated the federal civil rights law title VI and the district's own anti-discrimination policy. This is one of many schools across the country that made headlines to host events that are said to eliminate white students.
“Just as it makes them illegal and uncomfortable [Highland Park Senior High School] To provide a field trip that explicitly excludes colour… it is equally illegal and offensive to host a racially segregated field trip exclusively for “students of colours,” Perry wrote Tuesday to Principal Winston Tucker and Brand Love Agency behind the event.
Perry reportedly described himself in the letter as “a full-time civil rights activist who has filed nearly 1,000 civil rights complaints from hundreds of American colleges, universities and kindergarten to high school.”
A school spokesman argued that “the district remains committed to providing post-secondary career-related opportunities for all students to pursue their passion.” (istock)
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Tucker reportedly told the retired professor that Brand Love had cancelled the event.
Perry also reportedly called on the district with a similar civil rights complaint to plan a “science girl” learning program.
While he filed a complaint this week with the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Office, The Star Tribune reported He is now planning to withdraw it “if the complaint case number is assigned.”
As the event is now cancelled, “the basis for Title VI complaints no longer exists,” he said.
Erica Wacker, a spokesman for St. Paul Public Schools, responded to the incident by claiming that the district was wary of its anti-discrimination policies. One example she cited in the Star Tribune is that the Day of Engagement for African American National Parents is “designed for a specific group of people, but open to everyone.” However, when mistakes were made, they fought that it was usually due to an outside partner.
Several schools across the country have sparked controversy by holding events aimed at audiences based on racial backgrounds. (Peter Kneffel/Picture Alliance)
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Wacker told Fox News Digital: “From a district's perspective, Saint Paul Public Schools values partnership with community organizations such as BrandLab and opportunities they offer to students. The district is committed to providing post-secondary and career-related opportunities for all students to pursue their passion.”
Brand Love is also speaking to Star Tribune, declaring that it is “comprehensive in marketing and advertising and is committed to truly representing the world we live in,” and is working with the same high school to establish a new event.
Brandlab's declares on its website that it is “trying to strengthen its young talent from Indigenous, Black, Brown, AAPI, Hispanic/Latinx backgrounds.”
Fox News Digital reached out to BrandLab and did not respond immediately.
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