NOBLESVILLE, Ind. — Parents of Noblesville High School students are calling out school leaders after they say diversity training held Monday segregated students, instead of bringing them together.
The training was held four days after police arrested a student for making violent, racist threats in a message written on a bathroom stall.
READ | Police investigating threat at Noblesville High School
Noblesville School Board President Kevin Kalstad addressed the threat against minority students at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Noblesville School Board on Tuesday.
"Our school district and community has come together once again in the aftermath of something horrible," Kalstad said.
Kalstad says Noblesville is unified, but some parents worry that the diversity training held Monday at the high school is causing even more division amongst the students.
The racial sensitivity training included break-out groups based on race.
Parents like Kathryn Ehrgott, who has a sophomore at Noblesville High School, were upset. She calls Monday's training "an ill-conceived rush to judgment."
MORE | Students learn about diversity after threats found
Ehrgott and other parents are accusing the school of using that training to segregate the students.
"That's not how you engage a student, by separating them and reminding them that they're different," Ehrgott said. "You get them together and you talk. You have a conversation."
Despite parent concerns, the district says it has gotten positive feedback from minority students, who they say appreciate having "an emotionally safe place to have open discussions about the threat made against them."
In an email to parents, Noblesville Schools apologized "for any distress" the diversity training may have caused.
The discussion on diversity is set to continue at another event next week at the high school.
