A Lawsuit Threatens a Groundbreaking School-Desegregation Case

“LaShawn Robinson is the named plaintiff on the new federal suit, Robinson v. Wentzell. A Hartford mother of five, she’s suing against what she believes is a racially discriminatory system that barred her African-American son, Jarod, from accessing a magnet-school education. After multiple years applying through the Sheff lottery system, Jarod couldn’t get off the wait list. Robinson said her son was getting a ‘decent education’ at his neighborhood school, but she wanted him to have an ‘extraordinary’ one. This past October, the Pacific Legal Foundation argued before a DC federal judge for their suit to move forward. ‘We’re challenging the racial quotas that require all magnet schools to be 25 percent white, and we’re challenging the lottery system itself,’ Thompson said, alleging the lottery discriminates based on race, though officials stress the lottery is race-blind.”