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Three Black culture courses at two Minneapolis high schools are restricted by race and gender, according to course guides that the district said are "not reflective of our actual practices." Black culture courses ‘open’ to Black students only What we know: The school district offers three Black culture courses, two at South High School and one at Roosevelt High School. South High School offers two HS Black Culture courses. According to the course guide, one section is "open to: all Black male students." The other is "open to: all Black female students." Another course, at Roosevelt High School, is called High School Black Culture and is "a group for Black girls (Queens)...." The courses at South High School examine the Black experience, while the course at Roosevelt High School explores "different topics relevant to their lives as Black students." Attorney says restrictions violate federal law Legal issue: "It’s incomprehensible to me that a school would intentionally separate students on the basis of race," attorney Jason Torchinsky told FOX 9. "If you open up a course to a particular race, that’s directly in violation of the federal statute. And so, the risk for the school district is any kind of federal funding that the school district gets could be at risk if they continue with this program and the federal government decides to restrict their funding..." He noted that the gender restrictions may or may not present legal problems, but said race ones do. Big picture view: In March, the Trump administration started targeting colleges and universities for alleged violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race at any institution that receives federal funds. The investigations focused on race-based scholarships and programs that segregated students by race, according to the U.S. Department of Education. MPS denies it segregated classes, plans to update course guides What they're saying: In its initial statement on Friday, the district said: "All students are welcome to request any class that they are interested in provided they meet any applicable academic prerequisites." It did not specify whether all students who requested a particular class ultimately enrolled in it. In another statement on Monday, the district said: "Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) does not restrict enrollment in courses or participation in activities on the basis of race, gender or any other protected class characteristic of students. If any student is being excluded from participation in a class or activity on the basis of race or gender, they can either speak with their school's principal or our Office of Civil Rights. "It has been brought to our attention that there is language on some of our school websites that is not reflective of our actual practices, and we are working with our staff to update that language as soon as possible." What's next: The district said it plans to update the verbiage on its websites. It did not explain why the course guides restricted enrollment by race and gender.
