A Wisconsin school district official is facing backlash for saying that a white student was not entitled to protection under anti-discrimination law.
Tanya Fredrich, the assistant superintendent of Milwaukee-area Elmbrook Schools, rejected a claim last year from a white student’s parents that their child had faced discrimination on account of his race. The assistant superintendent justified the rejection by claiming that the student did not belong to a class protected by anti-discrimination law.
“The student is not a member of any class that is legally protected from discrimination by state or federal law,” Fredrich said in a statement to a news outlet. The child’s parents had claimed that the district was neglecting the necessary mental health assistance needed by their child and was deliberately prioritizing nonwhite students and students from low-income families.
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“The student’s race, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status are what are considered to be the majority status and thus do not form a basis for claiming that the student is being treated or has been treated less favorably than persons not in the protected class,” Fredrich told the student’s parents.
The district’s stance was blasted as “legally and factually wrong” by the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty, which recently wrote a letter to district Superintendent Mark Hansen and said it was “shocking that a public educational institution could hold such a view.”
“There is no such thing as a ‘protected class’ in the sense that some races are protected while others are not,” the letter read. “Black and brown students do not have different rights; they have identical rights to white students and must be treated identically to white students. And there is certainly nothing in the law concerning a diminished set of rights for those with ‘majority status.'”
In a response sent March 10, the district said that the institute had taken Fredrich’s comments out of context and failed to consider “the specific allegations in this matter.” The district denied that the student had faced racial discrimination.
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“While the statement referenced by WILL could have been stated more clearly, Elmbrook’s official position is that it does not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race or any other protected class,” the district said. “WILL’s attempt to divide our community is wrong, and we call upon WILL to cease these meritless accusations.”
