New TJ Lawsuit Filed 3/10/21 by Pacific Legal Foundation

[Anonymous]

Scott Brabrand and the FCPS board would have been fired had they worked for Georgetown Law. They openly discriminated against one racial group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Scott Brabrand and the FCPS board would have been fired had they worked for Georgetown Law. They openly discriminated against one racial group.

Basically any change in policy that doesn't preserve or increase TJ's Asian population will be viewed as antiAsian. I am all for opening up TJ admissions so a broader group of students are given a opportunity to excel in STEM. I think a 3.5 with each middle school getting a certain number of slots is an excellent idea. Despite being a race neutral standard, of course it will change the racial composition of the school. I think it's great to encourage kids from all backgrounds to purse STEM careers. It can't be that FCPS can never decide to adjust TJ admissions standards in anyway that might affect the number of Asians. Given the current makeup of TJ, that's impossible outside of keeping a system that can be easily gamed by those with want to cheat, even if only a small number of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scott Brabrand and the FCPS board would have been fired had they worked for Georgetown Law. They openly discriminated against one racial group.

Basically any change in policy that doesn't preserve or increase TJ's Asian population will be viewed as antiAsian. I am all for opening up TJ admissions so a broader group of students are given a opportunity to excel in STEM. I think a 3.5 with each middle school getting a certain number of slots is an excellent idea. Despite being a race neutral standard, of course it will change the racial composition of the school. I think it's great to encourage kids from all backgrounds to purse STEM careers. It can't be that FCPS can never decide to adjust TJ admissions standards in anyway that might affect the number of Asians. Given the current makeup of TJ, that's impossible outside of keeping a system that can be easily gamed by those with want to cheat, even if only a small number of people.

The middle school quota system is already being gamed this school year. Beyond easy during DL. Families have gotten a different address through various means (renting, buying investment property, address of friend). I hope that the TJ admissions staff verifies that the child is actually living at the address, but that will never happen. The child does not even have to be in Fairfax County, Virginia or the US to apply this year. They only need an address and a VPN to make it look like they are logging in from Fairfax County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overwhelming public evidence exists that the new TJ admissions process was adopted with the purpose of disadvantaging Asian-American students and reducing Asian American enrollment at TJ. As such, these changes violate the Equal Protection Clause.

Helping URMs is a noble goal, but you cannot be biased against Asian Americans in the process. The board essentially gerrymandered the application process to kneecap Asian Americans. The intent is clear.

The application process needs to be redesigned by a board that doesn't hold stereotypes against Asian Americans. The board didn't even pretend to be neutral.

By definition increasing URM numbers at TJ will decrease Asian and White numbers- the math is really simple there. You're basically saying that desegregation is a per se violation of the equal protection clause because it necessarily disadvantages one race- good luck with that

Actually, white numbers will increase substantially under the new policy. It is literally only the Asian numbers that will decrease. I don't have a problem with each middle school getting an allotment of seats, or a true lottery, but let's not pretend either method won't result in TJ no longer being a school of the best and brightest of Northern Virginia. Maybe it's time to stop caring about that and make TJ just a STEM focus school.

TJ won’t be nearly as good as Langley in a few years. The School Board fortunately doesn’t mess around with any social engineering there and lets it continue to serve the elite areas of the county.

Beyond laughable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scott Brabrand and the FCPS board would have been fired had they worked for Georgetown Law. They openly discriminated against one racial group.

Basically any change in policy that doesn't preserve or increase TJ's Asian population will be viewed as antiAsian. I am all for opening up TJ admissions so a broader group of students are given a opportunity to excel in STEM. I think a 3.5 with each middle school getting a certain number of slots is an excellent idea. Despite being a race neutral standard, of course it will change the racial composition of the school. I think it's great to encourage kids from all backgrounds to purse STEM careers. It can't be that FCPS can never decide to adjust TJ admissions standards in anyway that might affect the number of Asians. Given the current makeup of TJ, that's impossible outside of keeping a system that can be easily gamed by those with want to cheat, even if only a small number of people.

The middle school quota system is already being gamed this school year. Beyond easy during DL. Families have gotten a different address through various means (renting, buying investment property, address of friend). I hope that the TJ admissions staff verifies that the child is actually living at the address, but that will never happen. The child does not even have to be in Fairfax County, Virginia or the US to apply this year. They only need an address and a VPN to make it look like they are logging in from Fairfax County.

If you're a public school student, this isn't going to work. The TJ Admissions Office is going to have their actual residential data from the school that they attend through liaising with their Student Services office - you have to live within center boundaries to attend those AAP centers. If those are mismatched, it will be a huge red flag and may very well disqualify the student.

Only way this would have actually worked is to switch schools, and there is little evidence of a mass flight from Carson or Longfellow to say, Twain or Sandburg. That hasn't happened. What is most likely is that a lot of families just gamed their way right out of the process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scott Brabrand and the FCPS board would have been fired had they worked for Georgetown Law. They openly discriminated against one racial group.

Basically any change in policy that doesn't preserve or increase TJ's Asian population will be viewed as antiAsian. I am all for opening up TJ admissions so a broader group of students are given a opportunity to excel in STEM. I think a 3.5 with each middle school getting a certain number of slots is an excellent idea. Despite being a race neutral standard, of course it will change the racial composition of the school. I think it's great to encourage kids from all backgrounds to purse STEM careers. It can't be that FCPS can never decide to adjust TJ admissions standards in anyway that might affect the number of Asians. Given the current makeup of TJ, that's impossible outside of keeping a system that can be easily gamed by those with want to cheat, even if only a small number of people.

The middle school quota system is already being gamed this school year. Beyond easy during DL. Families have gotten a different address through various means (renting, buying investment property, address of friend). I hope that the TJ admissions staff verifies that the child is actually living at the address, but that will never happen. The child does not even have to be in Fairfax County, Virginia or the US to apply this year. They only need an address and a VPN to make it look like they are logging in from Fairfax County.

If you're a public school student, this isn't going to work. The TJ Admissions Office is going to have their actual residential data from the school that they attend through liaising with their Student Services office - you have to live within center boundaries to attend those AAP centers. If those are mismatched, it will be a huge red flag and may very well disqualify the student.

Only way this would have actually worked is to switch schools, and there is little evidence of a mass flight from Carson or Longfellow to say, Twain or Sandburg. That hasn't happened. What is most likely is that a lot of families just gamed their way right out of the process.

I think you have your head in the sand. It’s apparently not hard to fool the front office staff with an address when enrolling. 1.5% is not a big number - it would not take huge number of families gaming the system to have an impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scott Brabrand and the FCPS board would have been fired had they worked for Georgetown Law. They openly discriminated against one racial group.

Basically any change in policy that doesn't preserve or increase TJ's Asian population will be viewed as antiAsian. I am all for opening up TJ admissions so a broader group of students are given a opportunity to excel in STEM. I think a 3.5 with each middle school getting a certain number of slots is an excellent idea. Despite being a race neutral standard, of course it will change the racial composition of the school. I think it's great to encourage kids from all backgrounds to purse STEM careers. It can't be that FCPS can never decide to adjust TJ admissions standards in anyway that might affect the number of Asians. Given the current makeup of TJ, that's impossible outside of keeping a system that can be easily gamed by those with want to cheat, even if only a small number of people.

Would you be in favor of having the students fill out an application that does not list their name, race or gender and have them take an admissions test and then have the top 1.5% of the scorers getting admitted to TJ? That would change the demographic makeup of the student body without having to set up the "holistic" review in a manner that disadvantages those who happen to be Asian. I could get behind something like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overwhelming public evidence exists that the new TJ admissions process was adopted with the purpose of disadvantaging Asian-American students and reducing Asian American enrollment at TJ. As such, these changes violate the Equal Protection Clause.

Helping URMs is a noble goal, but you cannot be biased against Asian Americans in the process. The board essentially gerrymandered the application process to kneecap Asian Americans. The intent is clear.

The application process needs to be redesigned by a board that doesn't hold stereotypes against Asian Americans. The board didn't even pretend to be neutral.

By definition increasing URM numbers at TJ will decrease Asian and White numbers- the math is really simple there. You're basically saying that desegregation is a per se violation of the equal protection clause because it necessarily disadvantages one race- good luck with that

Actually, white numbers will increase substantially under the new policy. It is literally only the Asian numbers that will decrease. I don't have a problem with each middle school getting an allotment of seats, or a true lottery, but let's not pretend either method won't result in TJ no longer being a school of the best and brightest of Northern Virginia. Maybe it's time to stop caring about that and make TJ just a STEM focus school.

TJ won’t be nearly as good as Langley in a few years. The School Board fortunately doesn’t mess around with any social engineering there and lets it continue to serve the elite areas of the county.

Beyond laughable.

At football? Or SAT scores? What do they mean by "as good?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scott Brabrand and the FCPS board would have been fired had they worked for Georgetown Law. They openly discriminated against one racial group.

Basically any change in policy that doesn't preserve or increase TJ's Asian population will be viewed as antiAsian. I am all for opening up TJ admissions so a broader group of students are given a opportunity to excel in STEM. I think a 3.5 with each middle school getting a certain number of slots is an excellent idea. Despite being a race neutral standard, of course it will change the racial composition of the school. I think it's great to encourage kids from all backgrounds to purse STEM careers. It can't be that FCPS can never decide to adjust TJ admissions standards in anyway that might affect the number of Asians. Given the current makeup of TJ, that's impossible outside of keeping a system that can be easily gamed by those with want to cheat, even if only a small number of people.

The middle school quota system is already being gamed this school year. Beyond easy during DL. Families have gotten a different address through various means (renting, buying investment property, address of friend). I hope that the TJ admissions staff verifies that the child is actually living at the address, but that will never happen. The child does not even have to be in Fairfax County, Virginia or the US to apply this year. They only need an address and a VPN to make it look like they are logging in from Fairfax County.

If you're a public school student, this isn't going to work. The TJ Admissions Office is going to have their actual residential data from the school that they attend through liaising with their Student Services office - you have to live within center boundaries to attend those AAP centers. If those are mismatched, it will be a huge red flag and may very well disqualify the student.

Only way this would have actually worked is to switch schools, and there is little evidence of a mass flight from Carson or Longfellow to say, Twain or Sandburg. That hasn't happened. What is most likely is that a lot of families just gamed their way right out of the process.

I think you have your head in the sand. It’s apparently not hard to fool the front office staff with an address when enrolling. 1.5% is not a big number - it would not take huge number of families gaming the system to have an impact.

What do you mean by "fool the front office staff"? Every student at every public middle school has an address on file, and that address is used to determine their eligibility to attend that school. For centers, the boundaries are wider because there are fewer of them.

You have to submit an address to apply to TJ, and that address is going to be cross-checked against the address that is on file at the middle school. If they don't match, an investigation will ensue.

The only way to "game the system" for public school students would require them to actually change schools. And again, it's not like there is some hard and fast criteria that the Admissions Office is using to determine that top 1.5%.

The TJ liaison in the Student Services department at each middle school is going to know which students transferred in either over the summer or in, say, October when the geographic weighting was introduced. They are going to share that information with the Admissions Office.

[Anonymous]

"an investigation will ensue. " I'll take Stuff that Never Happens for $1000, Katie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"an investigation will ensue. " I'll take Stuff that Never Happens for $1000, Katie.

Yeah, it'll take about 30 seconds and will most likely result in the application being thrown out unless it's a data entry error. FCPS has never really cared where you live before within the county as a matter of whether or not you'll be accepted to TJ. Now they are working to create geographic diversity so it will be one of the most scrutinized parts of the application if things don't match up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scott Brabrand and the FCPS board would have been fired had they worked for Georgetown Law. They openly discriminated against one racial group.

Basically any change in policy that doesn't preserve or increase TJ's Asian population will be viewed as antiAsian. I am all for opening up TJ admissions so a broader group of students are given a opportunity to excel in STEM. I think a 3.5 with each middle school getting a certain number of slots is an excellent idea. Despite being a race neutral standard, of course it will change the racial composition of the school. I think it's great to encourage kids from all backgrounds to purse STEM careers. It can't be that FCPS can never decide to adjust TJ admissions standards in anyway that might affect the number of Asians. Given the current makeup of TJ, that's impossible outside of keeping a system that can be easily gamed by those with want to cheat, even if only a small number of people.

Would you be in favor of having the students fill out an application that does not list their name, race or gender and have them take an admissions test and then have the top 1.5% of the scorers getting admitted to TJ? That would change the demographic makeup of the student body without having to set up the "holistic" review in a manner that disadvantages those who happen to be Asian. I could get behind something like that.

I would be fine with the no name, race or gender. I don't think the school should be limited to the top 1.5 percent of test scorers. I think many kids can excel in STEM without being in the top 1.5 percent and I think those kids' love of STEM should also be given an opportunity to flourish. I think the 3.5 GPA in core classes benchmark is sufficient.

[Anonymous]

The racism on the part of the School Board is now being echoed by PPs, complete with references to “these people” and describing them as “unAmerican.”

We really need to get rid of this rancid School Board that has encouraged such discrimination and hostile language.

And even apart from that their new holistic review approach is just stupid and bound to chew up too many of FCPS’s resources all over who ends up attending a single school.

FCPS just digs itself into a deeper hole constantly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scott Brabrand and the FCPS board would have been fired had they worked for Georgetown Law. They openly discriminated against one racial group.

Basically any change in policy that doesn't preserve or increase TJ's Asian population will be viewed as antiAsian. I am all for opening up TJ admissions so a broader group of students are given a opportunity to excel in STEM. I think a 3.5 with each middle school getting a certain number of slots is an excellent idea. Despite being a race neutral standard, of course it will change the racial composition of the school. I think it's great to encourage kids from all backgrounds to purse STEM careers. It can't be that FCPS can never decide to adjust TJ admissions standards in anyway that might affect the number of Asians. Given the current makeup of TJ, that's impossible outside of keeping a system that can be easily gamed by those with want to cheat, even if only a small number of people.

Would you be in favor of having the students fill out an application that does not list their name, race or gender and have them take an admissions test and then have the top 1.5% of the scorers getting admitted to TJ? That would change the demographic makeup of the student body without having to set up the "holistic" review in a manner that disadvantages those who happen to be Asian. I could get behind something like that.

I would be fine with the no name, race or gender. I don't think the school should be limited to the top 1.5 percent of test scorers. I think many kids can excel in STEM without being in the top 1.5 percent and I think those kids' love of STEM should also be given an opportunity to flourish. I think the 3.5 GPA in core classes benchmark is sufficient.

So we are back to the merit lottery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The racism on the part of the School Board is now being echoed by PPs, complete with references to “these people” and describing them as “unAmerican.”

We really need to get rid of this rancid School Board that has encouraged such discrimination and hostile language.

And even apart from that their new holistic review approach is just stupid and bound to chew up too many of FCPS’s resources all over who ends up attending a single school.

FCPS just digs itself into a deeper hole constantly.

it's easier to just get rid of TJ