Judge Rules Virginia School System Discriminated Against Asian Americans

A judge ruled that a Virginia school system discriminated against Asian Americans after it revamped its admissions process at a prestigious public school.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton found that Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology—a competitive school which ranks as one of the best public schools in the country—“infected” admissions changes with “talk of racial balancing from its inception,” per ABC. The Fairfax County School Board changed the school’s process in 2020 by scrapping a standardized test to make equal numbers of slots for the high school at local middle schools. 

Now, in the school’s most-recent freshman class, Asian representation fell from 73% to 54%, and the number of Black students rose from 1% to 7% and Hispanic students rose from 3% to 11%. The school system is arguing that the panelists who evaluate applicants do not know the race of the students they review. 

“The new process is blind to race, gender and national origin and gives the most talented students from every middle school a seat at TJ,” the school board’s lawyer John Foster shared, adding that the school board is considering appealing the ruling. 

But Hilton—who noted that the Virginia General Assembly and Department of Education was pushing schools to address a lack of Black and Hispanic students—argues that “board members and high-level FCPS officials expressed their desire to remake TJ admissions because they were dissatisfied with the racial composition of the school.” Hilton’s ruling comes a month after the Supreme Court decided to hear a case from Asian American families making admissions policy accusations against Harvard University.