Attorney General sends cease-and-desist letter to district

Margaret Korte
Entertainment Editor

Attorney General Andrew Bailey sent a cease-and-desist letter to superintendent John Simpson on Feb. 21, accusing the district of racial discrimination in their hiring practices.

According to Simpson, the letter was also sent to various news outlets. Lindbergh and Parkway districts also received letters.

Bailey said in the letter he’d received reports of the district’s attempts to hire a diverse staff. He said in the letter, “It has come to my attention that Webster Groves School District has instituted race-based criteria for its employees and applicants.”

The letter accused the district of “classifying employees and applicants based on race” for “hiring decisions.” He then went on to say that this violates the law under the Civil Rights Act.

Simpson said that throughout his run as superintendent, the goal has always been to hire a diverse group. “[Webster is] committed to trying to have a diverse faculty and staff, which is not unlike other districts.”

Despite this, there is no tangible policy or process in place to hire people of certain races over others as Bailey claimed. According to Simpson, the district’s goal is always simply to hire “the best person.”

Director of diversity, equity and inclusion Shane Williamson said via email, “Webster Groves School District maintains a hiring policy that prioritizes the selection of the best candidates based on their qualifications, skills and experience.”

According to Williamson, her role as director of diversity is “to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion are, and remain, at the center of the work of [the district]. We are also committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse environment where all individuals are valued and provided equal opportunities.”

Williamson said the district’s hiring practices aren’t different from others in St. Louis and throughout the country. “Our hiring practices are similar to what you see in school districts and employers across the region,” she said.

Simpson said that Bailey’s letter was largely unsupported and was based on reports rather than information that was fact-checked or experienced firsthand.

“What he does is he references just things he’s heard, instead of reaching out to us to say, ‘Hey, I heard you have this goal, this is what I hear you’re doing, tell me about it,’” Simpson said. “He instead sends a letter to us, and a bunch of media outlets, saying that what we do is we’re discriminating on the basis of race.”

In his letter, Bailey said he’s heard about discriminatory practices in the district. “According to the reports my office has received, the district adopted the goal to ‘attract, support and retain… staff who at a minimum reflect the diversity of our student population.’” He went on to say that “if these reports are true,” the district is guilty of racial discrimination.

“If he really was wanting to know about it, he would reach out to us and ask us about it—and he didn’t,” Simpson said.

As far as the accusation that the district’s goals to hire a more diverse staff are “discriminatory,” Simpson said, “We don’t see any way that what we’re doing and our stated goal and practices are discriminatory.”

“The Webster Groves School District is committed to fair and inclusive hiring practices. However, the district is interested in having a diverse faculty to serve as educators to our diverse student population and is willing to take the effort to attract, support and retain that staff,” Williamson said.

Bailey demanded the district cease alleged “race-based preferences and quotas,” then went on to say, “I am prepared to to exercise my office’s full authority under the law, including the right to work free from the evil of racial discrimination.”

Simpson said the district didn’t feel the need to respond to the attorney general’s letter. “We felt it was so ridiculous that we didn’t even respond to him. It wasn’t really for our benefit. I believe it was for whatever he was looking to gain with the attention.”

In general, Simpson said, “It’s frustrating. It takes time, it takes resources away from the district, and I just wish that, when somebody who has that title and has that reach as an attorney general, is going to say that the school district or school district leader or somebody is discriminatory, I think it’s irresponsible and reckless to not reach out to the person and learn more before you do that.”

“To me, it speaks to an intentionality of some to look to attack public education, and I feel public education is vital to our society. I feel like it’s the most important institution or important system that we have that can help or continue to improve the world and society, so to go on an attack, to spread the attack, to plant in people’s heads that we’re discriminating, it’s reckless; it’s destructive,” Simpson said.