Parents in New York City’s West Village were up in arms over a private school’s plan to segregate students based on their race. The school recently announced plans to end the “initiative.”
According to the New York Post, The Little Red School House’s Director Philip Kassen planned to implement the rule, which would have placed minority middle-school students in the same homeroom class.
“[Parents] also learned that the race-based placement policy had already been in effect for the 2017-18 school year for 7th and 8th graders, and would likely be expanded to the 6th grade in September,” reports the Post. “Each grade, which has approximately 40 students, has two homerooms. Students remain with their homeroom groups for 30 percent of the school day.”
Parents of the students at the school noticed that their children have been subject to segregated classrooms at the institution as far back as kindergarten. However, the “initiative” is much more conspicuous since taking effect during the 2016-2017 school year.
“They weren’t very transparent about it,” the father of a middle schooler said about the plan. “It was my daughter who immediately noticed that all the kids of color were in one class. If you’re going to have that policy, you need to be upfront.”
The school is home to several students of celebrities such as Friends’ actor David Schwimmer and filmmaker Sofia Coppola. It costs $45,485 per year to attend.