Parents Defending Education has filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights over a theater production at a Massachusetts high school that appears to have restricted auditions to only students of color.
Newton North High School’s teaching and working theater, Theatre Ink, is putting on a show called Lost and Found: Our Stories as People of Color in January 2023.
The theater, which has a link to the Black Lives Matter website on its homepage, describes the performance in an audition packet as a “no-cut, cabaret-style show for students of color at North.”
“This show was created 2 years by [an alumni of the school] to provide a safe community space for students of color to express themselves through the performing arts,” the packet adds. “From hardships to celebrations, people of color have countless stories to tell. Lost and Found will be a reserved safe space for this exploration and for people of color to be vulnerable and support one another.”
The packet says a “special” part of the show is that it “centers on community building by having full-cast rehearsals once a week where we have organized discussions about race and identity in our lives.”
It links out to an audition sign-up form that asks students how they “identify racially/ethnically” and to submit a headshot image and their preferred pronouns.
PDE argues in its complaint that the audition packet is “in violation of both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 … and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
“The performance description does not assert that participation in this performance is open to all,” the complaint adds.
“Regardless of intent, American public schools may not offer opportunities to students on the basis of skin color. It was wrong in the Jim Crow Era, and it is wrong in 2022,” PDE President Nicole Neily told Fox News.
A spokesperson for Newton Public Schools responded to the complaint in a statement to National Review saying: “While centered in the stories of the lives of our students of color, no one is turned away or excluded from participating or having a role in the ‘Lost and Found’ production of Theatre Ink, Newton North’s teaching and working theater program.”
“The Newton Public Schools do not exclude students based upon color, race, ethnicity, or religious background,” the statement added. “’Lost and Found’ is a student designed and student directed production. We support the premise and educational value of this performance. We are proud of our students for the hard work they do to not only assemble a diverse group of performers, but also to challenge each other to have difficult conversations around societal issues.”