The superintendent of Iowa’s Des Moines Public Schools, Ian Roberts, resigned Monday after being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last Friday on a federal deportation order.
Roberts, 54, a native of Guyana, was already suspended without pay and said through his attorney that he did not want to distract from the education of the district’s 30,000 students while he fights the case.
Attorney Alfredo Parrish said Roberts’ legal team is seeking to reopen the case and obtain a stay of deportation, but federal officials have noted Roberts lacked authorization to live or work in the U.S.
Roberts was arrested after allegedly fleeing from ICE officers, who later reported finding a loaded gun in his district-issued vehicle.
He also faces questions about prior weapons charges and arrests that were not fully disclosed during his hiring process. He also did not obtain a doctoral degree from a Maryland university, as he has claimed for many years, according to the Des Moines Register.
The resignation comes as the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launches an investigation into DMPS to determine whether the district is engaging in race-based employment practices that violate federal law.
In a statement Tuesday, the department said the probe will examine whether DMPS’ recruitment, hiring and retention strategies unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color or national origin in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
According to the DOJ, DMPS’ website and governance documents require that its teaching and learning staff match the student population in terms of “demographics and cultural responsivity.”
The district also set specific quotas for “increas[ing] the number of teachers of color” and operates the “3D Coalition” with area universities to recruit minority teachers.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said such race-based policies are unlawful.
“DEI initiatives and race-based hiring preferences in our schools violate federal anti-discrimination laws and undermine educational priorities,” she said.
She added, “School districts must cease these unlawful programs and restore merit-based employment practices for the benefit of both students and employees.”
In a notice sent to DMPS Interim Superintendent Matthew Smith, the DOJ wrote: “Our investigation is based on information that DMPS may be engaged in employment practices that discriminate against employees, job applicants, and training program participants based on race, color, and national origin in violation of Title VII.”
The letter cites DMPS’ 2021 Affirmative Action Plan, which includes explicit recruitment goals to “increase the number of teachers of color” in kindergarten and first grade by 8% and in second through fifth grades by 5%.
It also references a staff retention strategy to “lift up voices of our people of color” and create affinity spaces.
DOJ investigators will also review DMPS’ 3D Coalition Project, which guarantees interviews to minority teaching candidates and requires those who accept district support to later work in Des Moines schools for an equivalent period.
The Civil Rights Division said it has not reached conclusions about DMPS but will consider “all relevant information” and has authorized a “full investigation.”
The Des Moines case follows a series of recent DOJ probes into school districts accused of embedding DEI-based employment quotas.
In early September, the DOJ initiated an inquiry into Minneapolis Public Schools over a contract clause that gave “teachers of color” preferential treatment in retention and layoff decisions.
The policy came under fire for allegedly violating Title VII by prioritizing race over merit. The review is still active.
The Civil Rights Division also kicked off a review in July of Wisconsin’s Madison Metropolitan School District, reviewing whether its DEI-focused recruitment pipelines and retention programs improperly discriminated in hiring and promotion. The review remains active.
In addition, the DOJ in August began reviewing programs within the NYC Department of Education that created race-conscious teacher recruitment pathways.
Investigators signaled concerns that these initiatives, while framed as equity efforts, may have crossed into unlawful quotas. The review is still active.
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