Southlake, Texas, rejected diversity lessons in schools. But a federal probe may demand them.

After the Department of Education’s civil rights enforcement arm announced in November that it was investigating students’ allegations of discrimination and bullying at the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, conservative parents and politicians were outraged. Southlake Mayor John Huffman issued a statement suggesting that the federal investigation might have been launched to retaliate against the city for electing three school board members who opposed a plan for new diversity and inclusion training programs, which they characterized as a ploy to indoctrinate students with critical race theory. The Southlake Families PAC, which raised tens of thousands of dollars campaigning against the diversity initiative at Carroll schools, sent an email to supporters floating the possibility that the civil rights investigation was being steered by the Department of Justice as part of a broader plot against conservatives.

And U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, a Republican whose district includes Southlake, responded by writing a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, co-signed by several GOP lawmakers including Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas, expressing fears that the Biden administration was “weaponizing federal resources to intimidate parents who disagree with the policies of this administration.” There’s no evidence that the investigation at Carroll — which focuses on allegations by three students who say they were bullied based on their race, gender and national origin — was opened in response to Southlake’s elections. But if the probe by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights finds systemic problems at Carroll, legal experts say the agency could end up requiring the school district to implement some of the same types of diversity and inclusion programs that Southlake voters rejected in a pair of landslide elections last year. Some parents are counting on it. “The only way we're going to get any change in here is if the Department of Education comes in and does something,” said Jennifer Hough, a Southlake mother who lobbied for the diversity plan. “Our kids are going to keep suffering unless they come in and say, ‘Y'all have to do something to protect these kids.’”