The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced investigations for potential violations of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act against two school districts in New Jersey for allegedly failing to respond adequately to accusations of bigotry.
The districts were named on Tuesday as Lenape Regional High School District of Shamong, N.J., and Medford Township School District in Medford, N.J.
The OCR usually does not name the incidents that resulted in its investigations into claims of discrimination based on shared ancestry. JNS contacted both school districts and requested copies of the letters sent by the OCR but did not receive responses at press time.
Medford Township School District includes five elementary schools, one school for sixth grade, and one for seventh and eighth grades. In the 2020-21 school year, the district served 2,690 students.
Lenape Regional High School District administers four high schools—Lenape, Shawnee, Cherokee and Seneca—for the eight municipalities of Evesham; Medford; Mount Laurel; Shamong; Southampton; Tabernacle and Woodland townships; and the borough of Medford Lakes. As of September 2022, the district served 6,552 students.