Judge denies motion for stay in TJ case
A federal judge rejected a motion by the Fairfax County School Board March 11 to delay implementation of the judge’s decision on the admissions process for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, the Washington Post reports.
Judge Claude Hilton of the U.S. District Court had previously ruled that the admissions system adopted by the board in 2020 amounts to impermissible “racial balancing” and that it discriminates against Asian students.
The school board filed a motion for a “stay pending appeal” March 5 to keep the new system in place for the Class of 2026. School Board chair Stella Pekarsky (Sully) had argued that changing the process in the midst of evaluating applicants would cause “uncertainty and distress” for students who had already applied. The school board is planning to appeal Hilton’s decision.
Related story: TJ admissions process discriminates against Asians, judge rules
According to the Washington Post, in denying the school board’s request for a stay, Hilton said, there might be “some minor inconvenience” involved in changing the admissions system immediately but “I just don’t find irreparable harm.”
The Post quoted a statement from Pekarsky: “This ruling is so inconsistent with current law on diversity efforts that we cannot stand by and allow it to go unchallenged. We cannot walk away now after making so much progress toward a fair and equitable system.”
The school board changed the admissions process in an effort to draw more Black and Hispanic students to the highly competitive school. It eliminated the math test and $100 application fee and set aside spaces for qualified students from every middle school. Applicants are evaluated on their grade-point average, a problem-solving essay, a “portrait sheet,” and “experience factors.”
The Coalition for TJ sued the school board over the new admissions process, charging that it unfairly discriminated against Asian American students. The percentage of Asians in the Class of 2025 dropped to 50 percent. In previous years, it was about 70 percent.
Why would you use a photo of someone who rudely and histrionically refused to yield the floor as her allotted time was up and used inflammatory language toward individual School Board members?
Because it’s news-worthy.
Not everything you dislike gets censored, nor should it.
The Board is guilty of racial discrimination, as proved by the ruling. There are pictures of the Board online. Should we censor pictures of Board members because they are unequivocally proven racists?
This is sad. Fairfax County is attempting to help those less fortunate by ensuring those who are less fortunate, based in large part on their racial backgrounds, are appropriately represented in the County’s most famous high school, and for undertaking this diversity effort the County’s School Board members are slandered as racists instead of identified as the ardent anti-racists they claim to be.
All I feel certain of is the “color-blind” society I was taught was the objective of MLK and his followers — and I was so positively influenced by as a young adult — is dead.
It’s no longer an objective of the anti-racists or the racists; and there is no longer a middle in the USA.
If there remains many Americans who continue to believe in MLK’s dream — “I have a dream that little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
I see no evidence of it — instead, I see in the USA a greater focus and attention to each individual’s skin color than I have ever seen in my lifetime.
Trying to be colorblind (which is an actual impairment, anyway) doesn’t work. Racists will *always* be vengefully focused on racial and cultural differences, and those who overlook those differences are primed as passive enablers.
Though we’re all “children of god,” our physical appearance, where we/our ancestors came from, how we worship, who we love, and so on make a difference in our experiences and can deeply affect how others treat us. Pretending it doesn’t can rob someone—many someones—of an inexorable part of their identity, in all its beauty and pain. How can you respect, much less understand, something you refuse to see?
Efforts at colorblindness make it nearly impossible to talk about very real cultural and racial issues, and make it harder to track both hard and soft discrimination. It’s better to acknowledge our similarities and differences. Ony then can we recognize and analyze problems to make meaningful, effective change.
Dr. King never said to ignore the color of someone’s skin; he said don’t judge someone because of it.
Kim, you describe yourself well, “Racists will *always* be vengefully focused on racial and cultural differences.”
If someone’s “identity” is wrapped up in the color of their skin, that in itself is problematic and will lead to further division. The self-fulfilling prophecy is strong with this type.
For the sake of our country, please spare us of any more left wing solutions to perceived left wing problems. Your solutions are about 20 times worse than whatever perceived injustices. I think that is well established, especially over the last couple years.
We should emphasize our similarities over differences, and differences should be celebrated instead of ‘viewed through the lens’ of who is oppressed because 6 generations ago, a single digit percentage of x race enslaved y’s great great great great great grandparents.
Left-ism is backfiring hard.
The Board implemented a racist selection process that discriminated against Asians. It was pretty cut and dry. We use stereotypes to justify the discrimination and racist talk. We say, ” Asians are rich, privileged, etc. That they get in because they pay for prep courses and extra tutoring, etc” -That is not completely true and it punishes the individual because of the color of their skin.
The school is supposed to take the best. Instead they removed most of the tests that would show who the top students that the school should admit. I also know that my friends who are half Hispanic or black were thrilled with the change and started gaming the system to play up their minority status to get their higher than average kid into TJ. They played the card so to speak. They also acknowledge the it is more of a lottery now and less of achievement to get into the school. That the county dumbed down and added random luck to the admission process instead of pouring resources into schools with large numbers of black and brown kids.
Go back to the old admission process. Take race out of the equation.
Great job!! The soft bigotry of low expectations. Blacks need something to reach for….STOP LOWERING THE STANDARDS FOR US!! We are able to achieve great things. Lowering the standards has already resulted in black math scores declining in a discernable way. Stop with the elitest and liberal irrational policies that benefit no one but your ideology.