Malden charter school suing Dept. of Ed. for ‘censoring’ its curriculum via statewide performance criteria

A Malden charter school is suing the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and its commissioner Jeff Riley for “censoring” its mission with new cultural performance criteria all charter schools must follow.

“DESE’s adoption of these new culture-related requirements were designed, pretextually, to put Mystic Valley’s Charter in jeopardy,” read the complaint filed Monday in Suffolk Superior Court.

The new criteria evaluates charter schools in part on culturally proficient practices that foster an inclusive and diverse environment.

But Mystic Valley Regional Charter School argues that the “unlawful” and “vague” criteria goes against its mission of having an American “melting pot” school environment that focuses on commonality instead of differences, which some critics say is racist, according to the complaint.

“These critics believe the School should abandon its focus on a shared American culture and, instead, adopt a multi-cultural approach to teaching and education that emphasizes the differences in its students and society,” court documents read.

Plaintiffs allege DESE adopted the cultural practices knowing that it would put the charter school in violation of the policy.

“The Defendants in this matter have ignored the School’s formal and informal pleas not to use new and unlawfully-vague evaluation criteria on the School,” the complaint states, adding that the school asked for a waiver from an evaluation on the new criteria, which was denied.

The complaint says DESE personnel labeled the school as a racist school in need of reform even before conducting an evaluation, and a draft report from the department showed the charter is “partially meeting” the cultural criteria.

“DESE’s Draft Report puts Mystic Valley at risk of non-renewal of its Charter and, as a result, it presents an imminent risk of harm to the School, its faculty and its students,” the court documents state.

The charter school is asking that DESE be barred from enforcing the performance criteria and that the department doesn’t act on the findings from the draft report.

“DESE’s efforts have been and continue to be an unlawful interference by the government, effectively, to dictate and censor Mystic Valley’s approach,” the complaint states.

The Massachusetts Charter Public School Association said in a statement Friday that it opposes Mystic Valley’s lawsuit.

Executive Director Tim Nicolette said, “This lawsuit does not reflect the values or beliefs of charter public schools, which were founded in large part to address issues of educational inequity and systemic racism in public education. We urge Mystic Valley’s Board and school leadership to withdraw this ill-advised suit.”

Mystic Valley Regional Charter School is not a member of the MCPSA.

DESE declined to comment due to pending litigation.