The group states in the request that the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District has updated its equity policy, which includes race-based recruiting practices such as meeting diversity quotas for new hires and faculty retention.
Parents Defending Education, a parental rights advocacy group, is preparing to file an investigation request with the federal government, requesting that the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigate a California school district for alleged employment discrimination through its race-based DEI hiring practices, citing civil rights violations.
The group states in the request that the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District has updated its equity policy, which includes race-based recruiting practices such as meeting diversity quotas for new hires and faculty retention. The policy, the group said, violates Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.
The district's hiring practices require 75 percent of new hires to fall into the category of diverse, even if the candidate is not qualified for the position, including not having obtained a degree, according to LHPUSD's manual on "Hiring and Retaining a Diverse Staff 2024-2025."
The California school district compiled a list of strategies to achieve its goals by encouraging hiring managers to capitalize on racial and ethnic categories by prioritizing messaging that centers on diversity and people of color. According to the manual, hiring managers must track the diverse candidates through the entire hiring process to ensure the hiring teams "are not consistently rating majority candidates higher than others." The example of the majority candidates given by the district was white males. Hiring managers are also directed to tell candidates that there is a "pathway" for career growth "for staff of color."
Caroline Moore, Vice President of Parents Defending Education, told The Post Millennial in a statement: "La Honda-Pescadero is more interested in implementing race-based DEI hiring and retention practices than educating students. For instance, they set the unrealistic and frankly, racist policy of determining 75 percent of new hires have to fall into the category of 'diverse,' even going as far as to purposely hire for diversity, even if the candidate doesn't have a degree. Who is this district kidding? These policies have nothing to do with kids. Instead, they are the perfect example of how to ensure students aren't equipped with the tools they need to succeed in the world post-graduation."
Parents Defending Education charged in the letter, penned to San Jose's US EEOC Director Margaret Ly and Regional Attorney Roberta Steele, that the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District's race-based hiring and recruitment process "underscores that not all candidates are weighed the same through the hiring process," saying the exclusion is based on race.
The group argued a 2015 decision issued by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights during the Obama administration, which ruled that a Chicago school violated the Civil Rights Act when a Black Lives Matter assembly excluded white students and only included people of color.
"La Honda-Prescadero likewise cannot discriminate based on their race when hiring or making other employment decisions," the group said in the letter. "We ask that your office promptly investigate the allegations in this complaint, act swiftly to remedy unlawful policies and practices, and order appropriate relief."
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