Parents packed the C.K. McClatchy High School's auditorium for a community forum on recent events at the school Wednesday night.
"There are a couple of issues," said Rob Anderson, a parent. "Obviously, the science fair project that was put together by the student was concerning."
The controversial science project questioned if a student's IQ correlated to race and whether or not they could handle the challenges of the school's humanities and international studies program, also known as HISP.
Rashad Baadqir, another parent at this community forum, wanted to know more as an educator.
"The biggest thing to me, that I look at, is the culture gap," Baadqir said. "HISP kids versus non-HISP kids."
Baadqir's daughter is a freshman in the HISP program. He says a possible solution to having more diverse students is to start exposing them to the program earlier.
"It definitely has to start in early education," Baadqir said. "I think for a lot of students of color they are just not exposed to the programs with the resources available to them to get them on track."
During the community forum, the superintendent shared stats on the HISP program. He showed out of 3303 students, only 260 applied to HISP.
He also shared stats over heat maps of students who didn't apply and also questioned if distance was an issue.
During public comment, a student said he never heard of HISP until he got into high school.
Another parent asked if it was possible to question students who applied and didn't attend.