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Case 4 - Non-Minority Students Denied Entry to Public School

Boston Latin School Admitted Minorities Over White Students!

         VICTORY!!!  On Nov. 19, 1998 a federal appeals court ordered Boston Latin to immediately admit Sarah Wessmann, who had been previously denied entry because she is white!  The court also ruled that the school's race-based admissions policy is unconstitutional!   Boston vows to appeal to the Supreme Court, but NAACP does NOT want this case to end up in the high court where it might fail!  Feb. 4, 1999:  Boston Latin Caves in to NAACP; will not appeal! 

Boston Latin School:  Prestigious public school was determined to use racial quotas to deny entry to qualified white students -- with your tax dollars!

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         Sarah Wessmann and Julia McLaughlin are teenage white girls who scored very well on their admissions exams.  Yet, Boston Latin School denied them admission in favor of minority students who had lower scores on their admission exams.  Many years of legal battles have ensued, but as of Feb. 5, 1999 Sarah and Julia, and other non-minority students in Boston only might enjoy non-racial school policies.  But what about the rest of the country?

July 15, 1999 Update, below.  Busing has ended in Boston.  Public school students finally to get race-blind admissions policies and neighborhood schools!

June 24, 1999 Update, below.  More parents in Boston, from more schools, are demanding that discriminatory race-based policies be dropped.  And they are suing for their constitutional right to race-blind educational opportunity!

Mar. 24, 1999 Update, below.  Racial special interests feared that court-ordered color-blind admissions policies at Boston Latin would cause minority enrollment to drop dramatically.  They were wrong.

Feb. 5, 1999 Update, below.  Boston Latin caves in to NAACP; drops appeal of Nov. 19 order ending quotas at Boston Latin.   NAACP feared Supreme Court defeat of appeal would end racial quotas in public schools nationwide.  Surely this is a victory for non-minority children in Boston; but a great loss for non-minority children in the rest of the country.

Jan. 11, 1999 Update, below.  Boston Latin disregards NAACP advice to drop Supreme Court appeal; hires Harvard professor to validate use of racial quotas; pushes ahead with appeal for quotas.

Dec. 23, 1998 Update, below.  NAACP wants Boston to drop their Supreme Court appeal to keep racial preferences and quotas!  Read the update to find out why!

Nov. 21, 1998 Update, below.   On Dec. 3, 1998 the School board vowed to go to the Supreme Court to keep the quotas.

Feb. 10, 1998 Update, below.  Boston's expert witness testifies that the lower scores for minority students are "probably a lingering effect of prior segregation".  (Also see "about the Expert Witness", below)

May 29, 1998 Update, below.  On Thursday, May 28, 1998, US District Court Chief Joseph L. Tauro ruled in favor of Boston Latin School's reverse discrimination admissions policies!  The attorney for Sarah Wessmann, the girl who had been denied admission because she is white, immediately filed an appeal of the Judge's decision. 

Additional Resources and Links, below.

Background:
Boston Latin School Sued
to Admit White Teenage Girls!

          Boston Latin School has gotten itself into trouble for denying admission to well-qualified white students with high exam scores in favor of minority students with lower exam scores. The reason? Race. Ethnicity. Diversity. Until Julia McLaughlin's dad sued the school in 1995, Boston Latin had been in the habit of reserving 35% of its seats for minorities even if they have lower entrance exam scores than the non-minority applicants.

          13 year old Julia McLaughlin, who is not a minority, was denied admission to Boston Latin because of her race. Over 100 minority students with scores lower than Julia’s were admitted to the school while Julia was denied entry! In August 1995 her father, an attorney, filed suit.

          One year later, Julia McLaughlin was admitted to Boston Latin by order of US District Court Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr.   It seems that Boston Latin's admission policy was racist and therefore unconstitutional.

          Here comes the really slick part:   Following Judge Garrity's decision, in December 1996 Boston Latin School revised their racial discrimination formula. In a little statistical sleight of hand, the School Committee issued the following "new" formula which allegedly "eliminated" racial preferences:

          You might need to re-read that a couple of times. But the end result is that a substantial number of seats at Boston Latin are still reserved for minority students, even if those minority students happen to have lower scores on their entrance exams than non-minorities within their "lower half" of the ranked applicants.  (Read the formula a third time and a fourth time if you have to.  It is definitely still racially discriminatory.)

          Then, a 14 year old girl named Sarah Wessmann tried to get admitted to Boston Latin. She was not a minority. 10 minority students with entrance exam scores lower than Sarah’s were admitted while she was not.

          Sarah Wessmann and her attorney, Michael McLaughlin (Julia's father) filed suit against Boston Latin in August 1997. Her case went to trial on January 28, 1998.

          In testimony on 1/29/98, Boston Latin's Superintendent Thomas Payzant justified this reverse discrimination as a way of promoting "racial diversity". Payzant said that in spite of the large number of less-qualified minorities that have been admitted to the school, the numbers of minorities in the school "ought to be better"!

          In testimony on 1/30/98, Boston Latin's Headmaster Michael Contompasis told the judge that Boston Latin School’s policy of selecting half of the incoming class, based in part on race, creates "diversity" in the classrooms. Headmaster Contompasis did not provide testimony on the negative effect of this reverse discrimination on qualified non-minority students such as Sarah Wessmann.

          Professor Trent said the lower scores for minority students are "probably a lingering effect of prior segregation" (as quoted in the Boston Globe).  This was offered as apparent justification for Boston Latin's ongoing discrimination against non-minority applicants.

          Prof. William T. Trent also offered the opinion that if Boston Latin were to admit students based on test scores and grade-point averages that would result in "re-segregation" of the school!  (Prof. Trent apparently hasn't heard the news that in the U.S. we award jobs, promotions, success, and, yes, even school admissions based upon ability!  Our Constitution guarantees it!  Or used to...)

          When Sarah Wessmann's attorney pressed the school's expert witness for a definition of the "right" racial composition for the school, Prof. Trent declined, saying that it really depended upon an equitable assignment of resources to students based on their prior opportunities in this society!  Double-speak much?

          In his most preposterous comment from the witness stand, Trent suggested that the most experienced, seasoned teachers at Boston Latin School constitute a de facto "organizational climate of segregation" -- solely because these more senior teachers tend to be white! 

About Boston Latin's 'Expert' Witness:  Prof. William Trent's academic specialty at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign campus) is the study of ways to maintain racial quotas and racial preferences in our schools.  Much of his work seems to be based upon the a priori assumption that minorities are (and will continue to be) automatically discriminated against in education.

          Prof. Trent is no stranger to the court room:  He has also served as an 'expert witness' to help keep racial quotas in place in the schools in Prince Georges County, Maryland (Vaughns, et. al. v. Board of Education, Prince Georges County).

          Trent's views and biases have found a very comfortable home at the UI's Department of Educational Policy Studies (within the College of Education).  The Department's promotional literature lists as a selling point the fact that the College of Education has a much higher percentage of minorities than the campus as a whole:    "For many years (we have) worked to create a diverse faculty, student body, and curriculum. The Department stands out among peers even in a college that is considerably more diverse than the campus."  (Emphasis added.) 

          Judge Joseph L. Tauro was not shy about condemning the concept of a color-blind society. As quoted in the Boston Globe, Judge Tauro said in his opinion from the bench that reverse discrimination and racial preferences at the school ''...can be an important factor contributing to students' intellectual and moral development, thereby preparing them to survive and thrive in a pluralistic society."

          In other words, if you’re a white kid, the Judge thinks you should get used to racial preferences and quotas, and should not complain when you are passed over for racial reasons! 

          Within minutes of Tauro's decision, Sarah Wessmann’s attorney, Michael McLaughlin filed an appeal in the US Court of Appeals. Adversity.Net wishes Sarah and her attorney the best of luck.

          This is the first time that a federal appeals court has addressed the issue of reverse discrimination in student admissions in a public high school.  Undoubtedly this precedent-setting decision will also affect the intractable reverse racists at Arlington, Virginia's kindergarten.  See Also Case 9:   DC Suburb (Arlington) Doesn't Like White Kindergartners (local link, Adversity.Net, this site).

          The federal appeals court noted that racial diversity, in and of itself, is NOT a compelling government interest!  See Washington Post Nov. 20, 1998 (Page A04) "Race-Based School Policy Struck Down" (dead link)
[former link:   http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-11/20/211l-112098-idx.html]

          Confused?  Leonard Alkins, president of the Boston NAACP, explained it to the Boston Herald this way:  "The danger of this case, being as weak as it is, is if the Supreme Court should decide that they want to take this case for consideration, they could set a policy on affirmative action that could have lingering effects throughout the country."  Alkins went on to indicate that the supporters of racial quotas would much rather see Boston give up their school's racial quotas than face a possible Supreme Court precedent which would outlaw quotas in public education across the entire nation! 

          Readers will recall the case of Sharon Taxman, the white NJ school teacher was fired solely because the school had too many white teachers.  In late 1997, Taxman's attorneys had been poised to take the case to the Supreme Court, when a coalition of quota-supporters, including the NAACP, paid her $300,000 to drop the case!  (See also Adversity.Net's story on Sharon Taxman).

          Maybe NAACP can get by more cheaply this time.  It may be legal and affordable to bribe a lone teacher to drop a Supreme Court case, but can they bribe the whole Boston School Board?

          Boston Latin's PR campaign is already in full swing!  They arranged for Dr. Orfield to author a prominent article in today's Boston Globe which unabashedly defends the use of racial quotas at Boston Latin School.  The article, "Boston needs to strengthen its case for diversity at Latin School", appeared on page A15 of the Jan. 11, 1999 Globe, and the article is about as blatant a piece of partisan propaganda as any which were ever planted by Sen. Joe McCarthy's "House Unamerican Activities Committee" during the 1950's purge of 'communist sympathizers, jazz musicians, socialists, and counter-cultural free-thinkers'.

          About Dr. Gary Orfield:  Dr. Orfield is a professor of education and social policy at Harvard University and he is a prolific writer in defense of racial quotas.  Dr. Orfield frequently works under the umbrella of "The Harvard Project on School Desegration" (a misnomer), and has helped draft friend-of-the-court briefs in support of discriminatory minority racial admissions policies in a number of other school quota cases.  He has also served as a consultant to numerous pro-quota groups, including the 'Minnesota Desegregation Roundtable'.  Dr. Orfield has a long and friendly relationship with the NAACP which frequently relies upon his academic credentials in order to lend credence to their pro-quota, race-based social policies.

          Indicative of his many pro-quota publications and articles, Dr. Orfield co-authored the highly-biased and prejudicial book called "The Closing Door: Conservative Policy and Black Opportunity" (U of Chicago Press, 1991) in which he attempted to add an academic veneer to his partisan condemnation of a color-blind society.

          NAACP and the Dept. of Education hope they can continue to stall a major court challenge to public school quotas until some of the conservative Supreme Court justices retire and are replaced with justices who are more sympathetic to racial quotas.

          According to Associated Press, a constitutional scholar at Harvard Law School, Richard Fallon, summed it up fairly concisely:   "One of the things that the [supreme] court has been most set against is quotas or anything that looks like a quota.  They have consistently, in all of their cases, said how skeptical they are of quotas."

          For now, it looks like Boston's non-minority children such as Sarah Wessmann and Julia McLaughlin, who started all of this fuss, will be assured of almost fair and equal treatment in public education, without regard to race, based on the court's Nov. 19, 1998 order.  Sadly, however, non-minority children at other public schools will have to wait until a school board has the courage to buck the NAACP and the U.S. Dept. of Education.

Related News Stories:

          But some say the statistics provide a telling lesson in one of the country's most tumultuous, and closely watched, racial preference and quota-based admissions battlegrounds: No matter how hard a school struggles to come up with an acceptable race-based admissions policy, it will probably fail both in the courts and in the classroom if it is based on race and ethnicity instead of upon academics.

          "As federal judges consistently reject any plan that even remotely resembles a racial quota, school systems across the country are struggling to come up with formulas to maintain diversity without running afoul of the Constitution. Boston's attempt to solve the problem could serve as a bellwether for the rest of the nation."

          Yesterday, the race-blind admissions statistics were the buzz in Latin and throughout the Boston school community. While some students and parents hailed the ability of minority students to hold their own in Latin's competitive admissions process, many said the previous race-sensitive policy did the students a disservice by implying they could not get into Latin on academic standing alone.  (Based on Boston Globe, 03/24/99, page B01, by Beth Daley)
[former link *http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/083/metro/Latin_minority_admissions_steady+.shtml]

          ''It is unfair for my son to be denied anything because of his race,'' said Rose O'Toole, one of the five plaintiffs and a mother of a 4-year-old who she says was denied entrance to his choice of kindergarten because he was white. Boston's Children First, a pro-neighborhood school group, spearheaded the lawsuit and also is a plaintiff."  For more info, see link:   Massachusetts Racial Education.

Officials mull race-based school policy (06/30/99-dead link)
          "A lawsuit was filed last week against the city in US District Court by Boston's Children First, an advocacy group, and four parents who say their children were unconstitutionally denied entrance to certain Boston public schools because they are white.

          "Boton public school officials appear to be leaning toward dropping the use of race when assigning students to public schools, wary of spending money to defend a lawsuit they could lose in increasingly unsympathetic courts.  [...and the board is still apparently blissfully ignorant of our Constitution's guarantees against race-based discrimination in any form.]

          "'Given the current climate in this country, we would seriously have to examine whether we want to divert funds that could be used for teaching and learning on a lawsuit,' Elizabeth Reilinger, chairwoman of the Boston School Committee, said yesterday.

          "The schools use [a constitutionally questionable] assignment system that combines choice and race for all children entering kindergarten and grades 1, 6 and 9.

          "The committee, which has met twice in two weeks trying to agree whether race should remain a factor in student assignment, will make a final decision at its next public meeting on July 14. [The committee seems to presume that it has the authority to override the U.S. Constitution in their illegal, discriminatory use of race as an admissions criterion.]"  (Based on the Boston Globe 06/30/99 by Hermione Malone)
[former link *http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/181/metro/Officials_mull_race_based_school_policy+.shtml ]

          "The committee's vote of 5 to 2 completed a neat historical circle: In 1974, it was a Federal judge who found that Boston's de facto school segregation discriminated against black children and ordered the busing. Wednesday night, the committee voted under pressure from a pending Federal lawsuit that argues that the current system discriminates against white children.

          "City authorities who encouraged the vote to return to neighborhood schools said they acted out of awareness that here and nationwide, affirmative action programs and other school admissions systems that take race into account have lost again and again in recent court challenges. (New York Times 07/15/99 by Carey Goldberg)
[link http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/071599boston-busing-edu.html ] 

Additional Resources and Links -- See Also:

Boston Globe  Race neutral policy urged on prep classes (01/28/99) (dead link)
          "The Boston School Committee was urged last night to approve race-neutral admissions to exam school prep classes next year, a policy change that would dramatically reduce the number of black students in the program.  The request - to be voted on next week - is largely an effort to avoid lawsuits from white students denied admission to the program because of the current policy of having a racial quota. A similar admission policy for the city's exam schools was declared unconstitutional by a federal appeals court. That decision is being appealed to the US Supreme Court by the School Committee.

         "But [Boston Schools Superintendent Thomas W.] Payzant said the proposal is for next year only to stave off possible lawsuits. A similar admission policy for admittance into the city's exam schools was overturned after two white students claimed discrimination. Once the Supreme Court decides that issue, he said, then the committee can rework the admission policy to ensure more diversity while also having it hold up in court.  'If you don't change the current policy, this committee is vulnerable to a lawsuit that we have no way of winning,'  Payzant said.  'This is only for the 1999-2000 school year. Over the next 6-7 months, we will take a broader look at the issue.' "  (Boston Globe 01/28/99 by Beth Daley, originally appeared on page B07 this date)
[former link http://www.boston.com:80/dailyglobe2/028/metro/race_neutral_policy_urged_on_prep_classes+.shtml]

School board member says do NOT appeal Boston Latin case to High Court  (01/29/99)
          "A well-respected member of Boston's School Committee said yesterday the city should not take its appeal of Boston Latin School's race-based admissions policy to the Supreme Court.   'My desire at this point is that we do not pursue it,'  said [school committee member] Felix Arroyo, who voted in December in favor of appealing to the Supreme Court."  At least one other member, Susan Naimark, who abstained during the previous vote would now vote against pursuing the appeal to the high court.

          "NAACP lawywers have asked the city to drop its appeal because a loss before the Supreme Court could doom affirmative action policies nationwide."  (Boston Herald, 01/29/99, by Darrell S. Pressley)
[link http://www.bostonherald.com/bostonherald/lonw/lati01291999.htm ]

Boston Globe / Associated Press NAACP Opposes Bostons Appeal to Supreme Court
          "Saying the future of affirmative action is at stake, the NAACP says it opposes the Boston School District's plan to appeal a ruling against a race-based school admission policy to the U.S. Supreme Court."  (Globe/AP 12/21/98)
[former link *http://www.boston.com/dailynews/wirehtml/355/NAACP_opposes_appeal_of_quota_case_.shtml]

Detroit News  Civil Rights Leaders Fear Boston School Appeal will Backfire
          "Fearing a legal setback that could block any elementary or secondary school in the country from using a race-based admissions system, 'civil rights leaders' [NAACP, et al] are pressuring Boston school officials to back away from an upcoming Supreme Court appeal. The Boston School Committee has voted to appeal its November loss before a federal appeals court, which ruled the race-based admission policy at the prestigious Boston Latin School was unconstitutional.

          " 'This could be a very dangerous case,' said Leonard Alkins, president of the NAACP in Boston, one of many 'civil rights leaders' telling Boston schools officials their appeal could do more harm than good. If the Supreme Court rules against Boston, that ruling would block any school district in the nation from using racial preferences to diversify student populations that have not seen previous discrimination."  (Detroit News, 01-17-99, by Richard Whitmire)
[ link http://www.detnews.com/1999/nation/9901/17/01170079.htm ]

FoxNews / Associated Press  Racial Quota Supporters Vow to Appeal Decision and Keep Quotas!
          "Boston school officials will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether they can (continue to) use a race-based admissions policy."  If the Supreme Court hears the case it will be the first time that public school affirmative action has been ruled upon by the nation's highest court.  (Fox News, AP  12/03/98)
[ link www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/wires2/1203/n_ap_1203_88.sml ]

The Topeka Capital-Journal  Affirmative action debate moves to public school districts
          An excellent overview of the impact of recent court decisions banning "race-based admissions" in public high schools and grade schools.  Arlington, VA kindergarten; Boston Latin School; Montgomery County, MD.  Almost 50 yrs. after the landmark "Brown vs. Board of Education" decision, public schools must now cope with a long-overdue end to forced racial admissions.  (The Topeka Capital-Journal 11/29/98)  (Also published in the New York Times.)

New York Times  Undated/Undecided:   desegregation plan (dead link)
          "Lowell's (U Mass. campus) admissions policy has been changed to create one cutoff for all applicants, but for 20 percent of the class it takes into account other factors like socioeconomic status and personal achievement."  Opponents of race-based admissions "say that recent court rulings point inescapably to the conclusion that school systems...may not use any racial preferences" in their admissions policies.  (NY Times 11/28/98)
[former link:   http://web3.stlnet.com/postnet/news/wires.nsf/National/8019DD0585984140862566CA0062920E]

The Guardian   Affirmative action retreating under hail of US legal blows. (Dead Link)  Boston Latin isn't the only public school which will be affected by the federal court ruling that race-based school admissions are unconstitutional.  (The Guardian 11/25/98)
[former link reports.guardian.co.uk/articles/1998/11/25/p-34948.html]

Boston Globe  Court strikes down Latin School race admissions! (dead link) The Boston Globe's 11/20/98 summary of this historic judicial decision for racial equality and a color-blind society!
[former link:   http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe/globehtml/324/Court_strikes_down_Latin_School_rac.shtml]

Education Week  Desegregation  for a summary of other "reverse discrimination" cases in education.

Boston Globe Article 5/29/98 (dead link) for additional details of US District Court Chief Joseph L. Tauro's ruling in favor of racial preferences and racial quotas at Boston Latin School.

More / Related:

Montgomery County, Maryland Denies Racial Quotas! (10/07/99)
          Washington Post and Associated Press stories about similar racial quota case in Montgomery County, Maryland.  Court overturns use of racial quotas in public school assignments.
[link http://www.adversity.net/education_2_maryland.htm#primsec_quotas ]

END Case 4:  Boston Latin School Quotas

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