U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ruled the new admissions policies of an elite public high school in Fairfax, VA discriminates against Asian students.
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, (also known as “TJ”) is an elite public school located in Fairfax County, VA. It consistently ranks as one of the best public schools in the entire country, and competition for the limited slots at the school is extremely high.
Last year, Thomas Jefferson made changes their admissions policies. They claimed their intent was to increase the diversity among it’s student body by increasing the enrollment of Black and Latino students, so they made changes to their enrollment process. They claimed the new admissions policies are race-neutral, and in fact the panelists who are evaluating applications don’t even know the race of the students they are evaluating.
So how do you increase enrollment for African American and Hispanic students without taking race into account? Well, first the school removed standardized testing requirements from the admissions process. Next, they lowered the minimum GPA requirements for admissions. Then, instead of all applicant’s collectively competing against each other for seats at this prestigious school, they set aside the same number of slots for each of the county’s middle schools.
Regardless of a student’s academic standings or achievements, they can be denied admission while another student with lower academic standings.
The admissions process was also changed to include “experience factors” to be considered during the application process, such as a student’s status as an English language learner, and their eligibility for free or reduced price school lunches.
Previously, the racial make up of the student body was 73% Asian, 1% Black, 3% Hispanic, and 18% white. After changes to admissions (with the intent to change the racial make-up of the student body) this year’s freshman class consists of 54% Asians, 7% black, and 11% Hispanic.
The Fairfax County School Board has been linked to a number of scandals over the past 2 years. One of the most infamous involved implementing bathroom policies that allowed students to use bathrooms according to their gender identity. A female student was sexually assaulted and raped in a girls bathroom by a student who identified as a girl. The school board not only did not report the incident to police, but transferred the perpetrator to another school. The alleged perpetrator then sexually assaulted and raped another female student in the new school. When the first victim’s father confronted the school board about refusing to involve the police, they denied the rape ever took place, and ordered him to be arrested.