FRAMINGHAM — The U.S. Department of Justice's top civil rights official has publicly committed to investigating Framingham Public Schools after employment contracts surfaced showing four non-white school administrators receiving $1,500 stipends written into their salary "in recognition of being BIPOC" — a payout structure that, by the plain language of the contracts themselves, is not available to white employees in the same roles.

The investigation pledge came from Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump-appointed Assistant Attorney General leading the DOJ Civil Rights Division. On Thursday afternoon, Dhillon quote-tweeted the contracts and wrote three words:

"Concerning. Will investigate."

Concerning. ✍🏽 Will investigate.
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) May 14, 2026

The contracts

The clauses were first surfaced by Libs of TikTok, which posted photographs of four Framingham administrators alongside the relevant pages of their employment agreements.

The contract language is identical across the four agreements, varying only by job title. A representative example reads:

"Stipends: BIPOC. The PRINCIPAL shall receive a one thousand and five hundred dollar ($1,500) stipend in recognition of being BIPOC, which shall be added to the base annual salary and shall be payable in equal installments in accordance with the policy of the FRAMINGHAM SCHOOL COMMITTEE on or before the dates upon which the regular base salary is paid by direct deposit."

The clause is written into Sections F, G, H, and I of separate agreements, applying to a Director, a Principal, and an Associate Director.

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Excerpts of Framingham Public Schools employment contracts showing $1,500 'BIPOC stipend' clauses — Excerpts of the Framingham Public Schools employment contracts showing the $1,500 "BIPOC stipend" clauses written into Sections F, G, H, and I. Source: Libs of TikTok via @AAGDhillon.

The four named administrators

The contracts identify four current Framingham Public Schools officials receiving the stipend:

Tiago Pirete Gadens — Associate Director of HR
Marguerite Simpson-Lackard — Principal
Maria Davis — Principal
Adeyemi Ajao — Director of Partnerships

Four Framingham Public Schools administrators identified as receiving the $1,500 BIPOC stipend — The four Framingham Public Schools administrators identified in the contracts as receiving the $1,500 BIPOC stipend. Source: Libs of TikTok.

What "BIPOC-only" means in federal civil rights law

Framingham Public Schools is a federally funded school district. That places it squarely under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits any program receiving federal financial assistance from discriminating "on the ground of race, color, or national origin." Compensation decisions that turn on the employee's racial identity — paying one race more than another for the same job — sit at the center of what Title VI was written to forbid.

That is the statute Dhillon's division enforces.

How it traveled

The original post from Libs of TikTok went up at 11:59 a.m. Thursday, accumulating more than 672,000 views and over 3,300 reposts within hours. By 3:24 p.m. — three and a half hours later — Dhillon had quote-tweeted it with the pledge to investigate. Her post drew more than 154,000 views and 2,200 reposts of its own.

The Framingham Public Schools account (@framinghamps), tagged in the original post, has not publicly responded.

INSANE. Massachusetts School issues RACE-BASED payouts to staff

At least four different school officials at Framingham Public Schools (@framinghamps) are receiving $1,500 bonuses for identifying as "BIPOC."

HIGHLY ILLEGAL @AAGDhillon
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 14, 2026

The bigger picture

The Dhillon-led Civil Rights Division has spent its first year aggressively unwinding race-conscious programs across federally funded institutions. A pledged investigation into a single Massachusetts school district may sound small. The plain-text contract clause — "in recognition of being BIPOC" — is what makes Framingham unusually exposed. There is no euphemism to peel back, no equity-program label to interpret. The race-based payment line is in the agreement.

Now the federal government has said, on the record, that it is coming to look at it.

Feds to investigate Mass. school's 'BIPOC bonus' - $1,500 extra for four minority administrators, NOTHING for white staff

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