School Ordered to Cease Race-Based Admissions

The public high school where Benjamin Franklin, John Quincy Adams, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Leonard Bernstein all studied was ordered Thursday to dismantle its race-based admissions policy.

The ruling by a federal appeals court here held that Boston Latin School, the country’s oldest public school, could no longer maintain admission standards that promote minority attendance. Founded in 1635, Boston Latin is the most prestigious of the city’s three exam schools, and one of only a handful of such public schools in the country.

The court, in overturning a judge’s decision, acknowledged that attaining racial balance at Boston Latin was a difficult task, and expressed admiration for the motives of the Boston School Committee, which oversees the city’s educational system motives. But, said the court, “noble ends cannot justify the deployment of constitutionally impermissible means.”

The case was brought on behalf of Sarah Wessmann, a Boston ninth-grader who complained that she was denied entrance to the school in favor of less-qualified minority students. School Supt. Thomas Payzant said Boston Latin would immediately implement the court’s order to admit Wessmann, who is white.

But Payzant said in an interview that it would take some time to revise the entrance policy that was introduced two years ago. With the current admission procedure deemed unconstitutional, Payzant said he was uncertain whether the school committee would launch an appeal.

Payzant staunchly defended Boston Latin’s admissions procedure, in which half the 2,300 students are selected solely on entrance exams scores and grades, and admissions for the remaining half are weighted by race. Under the current policy, for instance, if 20% of the remaining applicants are African American, 20% of those admitted must be African American.

“As an educator, I am still very committed to the importance of having diverse student bodies, and I think it’s a legitimate function for the public schools of America to help young people understand diversity by experiencing it, not just by vicariously talking about it,” Payzant said.

Boston Latin’s student body is 51% white, 19% African American, 21% Asian and 9% Latino.

The school’s present admissions system was devised after a 1995 court challenge by Boston lawyer Michael C. McLaughlin on behalf of his daughter, Julia. McLaughlin, who also represented Sarah Wessmann, contended that both formulas for racial preferences amounted to quota systems. In his argument, McLaughlin cited statistics showing that both black and white city school students were underachieving.

“More attention should be paid to the schools and less attention to the race of the kids,” said McLaughlin, who called Thursday’s appeals court decision “a complete vindication of our position.”