JACKSON, Miss.
The U.S. Justice Department is looking into complaints of racial disparities within the Cleveland Public School District.
Federal officials are reviewing whether the district is in compliance with a 1969 desegregation order and a consent decree reached in the late 1980s, said Bear Atwood, director of the Mississippi Justice Project.
Among the complaints is that the district’s only magnet school is predominantly White when there should be an equal ratio of White and minority students. Residents also say the predominantly Black schools are in disrepair, including one that contains mold and asbestos.
Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the agency wouldn’t comment because it’s an ongoing matter.
Jacquelyn Thigpen, superintendent of the 3,500-student district, said federal officials were in town last week as part of the regular monitoring associated with the consent decree and as a result of the complaints.
“When they were here they visited every facility and they met with every building administrator. They will get us a report of their findings,” Thigpen said Tuesday. “We were working to correct them (problems) before the Justice Department came.”
