Des Moines Public Schools has discontinued employee groups aimed at giving diverse staff members a safe space to gather following a U.S. Department of Education directive ordering schools to end or curtail most diversity, equity and inclusion programs. On Monday, desmoinespublicschools recruitment and retention coordinator Theron Hobbs sent an email to the Des Moines schools' affinity group leaders notifying them the federal agency's edict no longer allows DMPS to "provide funding to district-run employee affinity groups." “I lament this is a reality for us and what that means for you and the humans you serve,” Hobbs wrote in Monday's email. “This is not an easy decision, but one in which we are trying to navigate the best way possible.” The end of DMPS' affinity groups also comes just days after Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law Senate File 418, which rolled back civil rights protections for transgender and nonbinary Iowans by removing gender identity as a protected class in the Io...