The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened two discrimination complaints filed against Denver Public Schools’ use of race in selecting committee members to evaluate the district’s “discipline matrix” and in deciding which students can take math extension courses.

The complaints, filed by the Mountain States Legal Foundation in November and September, respectively, alleged that the district gives preferential treatment to persons of color and inferred that its use of the word “diverse” is a veiled reference to considering race and people’s gender identity.

Will Trachman, general counsel for Mountain States Legal Foundation, said the district cannot discriminate against White students or individuals who identify with their sex at birth to “make up for some deficiencies” in the educational outcomes of marginalized students.

“They treat students differently based on race,” said Trachman, who formerly served as deputy assistant secretary in the Office for Civil Rights.

Headquartered in Colorado, Mountain States Legal Foundation is a nonprofit law firm dedicated to defending and expanding constitutional rights since 1977.

While the U.S. Office of Civil Rights has opened investigations into the complaints over the racial makeup of committee members and the math extension for fourth graders, it declined to open an investigation into the district’s “strategic plan.”

Trachman called the district’s strategic plan “a travesty,” noting, in part, in his complaint that it is “specifically based on listening more closely, and paying more attention, to certain people based on their race and sex.”

Trachman told The Denver Gazette that he did not know who district officials selected to serve on the Discipline Matrix Committee but believed — citing a text exchange between former Board Director Scott Baldermann and a constituent — that White individuals faced a disadvantage.

“I know there are likely dozens of people applying and I don’t think they are interested in hearing from a White woman to be perfectly frank,” a constituent texted Baldermann in the undated message submitted in the complaint.

Baldermann replied, “You are correct that the district will make an effort to have the committee reflect the student body. The district is 75% students of color. That’s reasonable to expect the committee to reflect the student body.”

Scott Pribble, a district spokesperson, said he could not provide the names nor the races of the individuals selected to serve on the Discipline Matrix Committee without submitting a formal Colorado Open Records Act request.

“Denver Public Schools is ready to work with the Office of Civil Rights on these investigations,” Pribble said in an email to The Denver Gazette.

Historically, the educational outcomes of Black and Latino students across the United States, and in Denver, have lagged behind their White peers. The district has implemented strategies seeking to address these outcomes.

Meanwhile, the district uses what’s called a “discipline matrix” to address problem behavior for its nearly 90,000 students. The discipline matrix — among other things — dictates when law enforcement should be called or when certain behaviors, such as bringing a firearm onto campus, should be referred to an expulsion hearing.

The discipline matrix, which has been under fire in the wake of the shooting at East High School that wounded two administrators last March, is currently under review.

In his complaint, Trachman claimed the district discriminated against “Caucasians and individuals of other races who applied” to the discipline matrix committee.

“DPS may have also discriminated against individuals based on their status as either heterosexual or non-transgender, which would violate Title IX after Bostock.”

“While I (don’t) rely on this, DPS’s use of the term ‘diverse’ in two locations on its website is merely a veiled reference to considering race and LGBT status,” he added.

In its response, the Office of Civil Rights dismissed the specific allegation that Denver Public Schools “excludes applicants from participating on the Discipline Matrix Committee on the basis of sex.” But the office said it is investigating whether the district excludes applicants on the basis of “race, color, or national origin in violation of Title VI.”

In the complaint over math extension courses, Mountain States Legal Foundation alleged that the district offers opportunities to “non-Caucasian students based on different criteria than Caucasian students.”

The group also submitted communication from DPS outlining the criteria to be eligible to participate in a math extension group — notably including that students must be persons of color.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed a quote to former Board Director Scott Baldermann. It has since been corrected.