Students at NYC iSchool and Chelsea Career and Technical Education High School staged a protest to demand integrated schools. IntegrateNYC, a youth advocacy group who helped organize the boycott, filed a lawsuit Tuesday calling for the elimination of competitive admissions screens that are blamed for driving segregation.
Christina Veiga/Chalkbeat
A group of New York City public school students filed a lawsuit Tuesday charging that the city and state are denying students a “sound basic” education by maintaining segregated schools.
The suit, filed in Manhattan’s Supreme Court, claims that the city’s use of selective admissions screens, its lack of a culturally representative curriculum, and its disproportionately white teaching force compared to the student body, all add up to violations of the state constitution and human rights law. By turning to the courts, the litigation marks a new tactic in a long-running battle to integrate New York City schools, which are among the most segregated in the country.