[Nov. 18, 2025] Today, Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) issued a request to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (CRD) to investigate Springfield Public Schools (SPS) for racial discrimination.

SLF President Kim Hermann said, “It is highly disappointing that we are continuing to see school districts in this country that are actively trying to imbue racial division within its staff, with the goal of then having it trickle down to its students. Not only is this wrong, but it is outwardly anti-American, going against the hard work done in the past to achieve a colorblind society where everyone is seen as equal. The sort of teaching that SPS continues to push breeds nothing but a regressive attitude towards race that is best left in the past. Further investigation into the actions of what is the largest school district in the entire state of Missouri is essential because if left unchecked, racial division will be allowed to flourish within the schools of Missouri.”

SLF previously represented two SPS educators who reported that they were forced to take part in “equity training” which encouraged racial discrimination and embraced dangerous racial stereotypes like teachings of Critical Race Theory. While the cases brought a level of public awareness to SPS’s conduct, their actions have persisted as they rebranded equity as “access and opportunity.” In the training, which came on the heels of BLM riots and other social unrest of the summer of 2020, SPS told staff that white supremacy was part of America’s founding, that denying one’s white privilege is a form of white supremacy, and that staff must be active anti-racists as part of their job duties. It even said that MAGA is a form of white supremacy and compared the Trump Administration to the KKK.

SLF argues in their complaint that, “The stereotyping so readily embraced by SPS can only ‘cause continued hurt and injury,’ that is contrary to the ‘core purpose’ of the Equal Protection Clause.” The federal government has the authority to directly enforce the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment against state actors…Frederick Douglass envisioned the day when ‘the color line will [one day] cease to have any civil, political, or moral significance.’ SPS will continue to treat color as a significant part of its educational mission. And Dr. King invoked America’s ‘sacred obligation’ to honor the promise to judge Americans ‘not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.’ …SPS is free to disagree with Frederick Douglass and Dr. King about colorblindness, but it is not free to accept federal funding and discriminate based on race.”

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