SILENCING PARENTS? Christian School Facing DEI Accusations Imposes Policy Seeking to Police Text Messages

Amid accusations that it supports “diversity, equity, and inclusion” behind the scenes, a Nashville Christian private school is requiring parents to sign a code of conduct that forbids certain text messages and conversations, and reportedly threatened legal action against a news outlet.

According to two Lipscomb Academy parents who spoke to The Daily Signal on condition of anonymity, the academy sent the new Code of Conduct to parents Feb. 24, requiring them to sign it by March 5 in order to keep their kids enrolled for the 2026-2027 academic year. The new code comes amid concerns regarding Head of School Brad Schultz, whose 2013 doctoral dissertation cited Marxist critical theorists, according to The Federalist.

Lipscomb Academy vehemently denied implementing any DEI ideas or programs and confirmed that it would require adherence to the new Code of Conduct by faculty, staff, students, parents and guardians in the new academic year. The school emphasized that parents helped develop the Code of Conduct.

“Enrollment at Lipscomb Academy is voluntary, as families have numerous public and private school options in the Nashville area from which to choose,” the school told The Daily Signal.

Even so, the policy may raise red flags.

“Families shall respect the confidentiality of administration, faculty, staff, and other students, and parents/guardians/families,” reads a section on privacy. “Information about personnel matters, disciplinary actions, grades, or other student matters must not be discussed publicly or shared through social media, texts, email, or conversation.”

The privacy section demands that families do not “publicly speculate or criticize personnel decisions or school matters.”

Leigh Ann O’Neill, chief legal affairs officer at the America First Policy Institute, told The Daily Signal that while Lipscomb Academy has the right to require conduct code adherence as a condition of enrollment, the short notice may still land the school in hot water.

“A basic tenet of contract law is that a contract entered under duress is not enforcable,” she said in an interview Friday. She wondered whether the parents “have a meaningful opportunity to find a different school for their kids to go to” with less than two weeks’ notice.

O’Neill also wondered about the opacity of the Code of Conduct.

“Am I even able to know what I am and am not allowed to do under this?” she asked. “Is it potentially so vague and overly broad that I’m afraid to say anything at all because I don’t know if my kid’s going to get kicked out of school for it?”

DEI Concerns

The new policy comes amid criticism from parents and some staff that traces back to September.

Two days after the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, Lipscomb students wore red ties to school to honor Kirk. Jesse Savage, head of the high school at the time, reportedly told the students they were out of compliance with the dress code.

Lipscomb apologized for how it handled the situation, and the school held a chapel service to honor Kirk’s memory. When the school transferred Savage to a new position—a move officials said had been in the works for months—some parents, alumni, and students protested in support of Savage.

Last month, an open letter addressed by “a concerned Lipscomb parent” warned about a “subtle but deliberate” infiltration of radical concepts, such as critical race theory, at the school. The Tennessee Star first reported the letter, noting that the a group of concerned parents who wrote it wished to be anonymous.

The letter warned that Schultz appeared to be implementing the strategy laid out in his 2013 dissertation, “Intentionally Diverse: A Historical Investigation of a Southern Private School’s Ten-Year Diversity Initiative.”

Schultz’s dissertation, which cites critical race theorists such as Paulo Freire, tracks the policies of Northeastern Christian School, an elite private school in north Georgia. He studied how “power dynamics between white mainstream and marginalized cultures” informed the school’s diversity initiative.

“This modus operandi—using DEI to ‘transform’ Southern private schools—has now been applied to Lipscomb Academy, where Schultz has overseen the integration of similar initiatives,” the letter stated. “Under his leadership, the school has embedded DEI through equity-focused programs, anti-racism training for staff, and curricula that promote identity politics, such as required readings on ‘white supremacy’ and system oppression for incoming students.”

Lipscomb’s Response

The DEI accusations appear to have touched a nerve.

“To be clear: there is no DEI program at Lipscomb Academy, and the school is fully compliant with all applicable Department of Education and Department of Justice guidance related to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” the school’s spokesperson told The Daily Signal. “Suggestions to the contrary misrepresent both our practices and our beliefs.”

“As for Dr. Schultz’s dissertation, we will not engage in a public critique of decades-old scholarship conducted for another institution,” the representative added. “A 13-year-old dissertation — analyzing events at a different school in a different state — does not in any way dictate current practices at Lipscomb Academy.”

Yet Lipscomb reportedly threatened The Federalist with legal action when the conservative outlet started asking questions.

“After The Federalist started looking into the allegations about the school’s left-leaning turn, Lipscomb’s general counsel sent a letter to Federalist Executive Editor Joy Pullmann warning that ‘publication of statements known to be false or made with reckless disregard for their accuracy could expose The Federalist to potential liability,'” the outlet’s M.D. Kittle reported.

‘Serious Concern’

Brennen VanderVeen, program counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, noted that Lipscomb Academy “has broad authority to define its mission and decide what kind of community it wants to foster,” including the ability to hold staff and families to a Code of Conduct.

However, he warned The Daily Signal that “the code of conduct establishes broad and open-ended restrictions on criticism of the school that may discourage open dialogue about the school and sweep important issues under the rug. Parents should make sure they are comfortable with such policies, which depart significantly from First Amendment standards.”

“A separate and more serious concern is the general counsel sending threatening letters to discourage media outlets from publishing unflattering information about the school, as the Federalist article reports,” VanderVeen added. “Using the threat of legal action to intimidate critics or reporters into silence is a significant threat to free expression.”

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