Opinion ID: 324656
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Structuring Flow of Students: Feeder Patterns

Text: 24 By 'feeder patterns' is meant the system of moving students from the elementary schools ending in grade eight, junior high schools, and middle schools to high schools. The methods of accomplishing this transition include seat assignments, preferences and options. After attending lower grades in a district system, students are channeled through a feeder pattern to a particular high school. High schools, then, do not have geographic boundaries as such, but are supplied with students by feeder patterns. 379 F.Supp. at 441. Although not part of the 'feeder pattern' as such, a determination of what schools are attended prior to high school has a vital impact on the choice of high school for any individual student. Certain high schools are three year schools (grades 10--12), while others are four year schools (grades 9--12). 15 Prior to high school, i.e., before application of a 'feeder pattern', children may attend elementary schools ending in grade eight or a middle school ending in grade eight or a junior high ending in grade nine. By creating black middle schools, the School Committee assured that the most natural way to channel the graduates of those schools would be into four year schools and away from three year high schools. In particular, with the conversion of two black junior high schools (Lewis and Campbell) to middle schools 16 and the channeling of their students into English, Girls High and Burke, it was not surprising that the latter became increasingly black. In addition, beginning in 1967, new feeder patterns were established and further refined in 1968. They amounted, according to the district court, to a 'redistricting' of several high schools. 25 The details are incredibly complex. For a thorough analysis, see 379 F.Supp. at 442--446. But the results, when the dust settled, were clear; (1) graduates of heavily white kindergarten through eighth grade schools (Cheverus, Russell and Parkman) were given seat preferences at white high schools; and while white graduates of schools ending in grade eight (Prince, Thompson, McCormack and Russell) were given seat preferences at high schools where black students were given seat preferences as well--English, Burke and Girls High, they were also given options of attending white high schools; (2) graduates of heavily black schools ending in grades eight (Martin, Dearborn and Campbell) and heavily black and other minority schools (Lincoln-Quincy, Rice-Franklin) were given seat preferences only at English, Girls and Burke; (3) students at identifiably white Michelangelo Junior High, which had fed only English for several years, were given an option of attending identifiably white Charlestown when the segregatory options started to take effect at English; (4) white students almost invariably used the options available to them to escape black schools. While this is only a brief summary of major actions taken, the consequence, particularly upon English High, was, as could have been predicted from even cursory analysis of the pattern, a rapid change in racial composition. 26 Appellants object to the drawing of inferences from these results. They assert that the initial motivation of feeder patterns was to aid integration, that feeder patterns encouraged blacks to attend white-majority schools, and in any event were a long standing procedure, antedating 1967. But the court found that the Committee by 1970, and certainly by 1971, was fully aware of the imbalancing consequences of feeder patterns, that the availability of options to whites and the relative unavailability of options to blacks predictably frustrated any integration, and that, before 1967, there was no evidence of well recognized patterns generally followed. In addition, the court found, and the record supports its findings, that the only consistent basis for feeder pattern designations, changes and deletions was the racial factor, and that no school committee justifications pertaining to the educational or safety needs of the school children withstood scrutiny. For example, the supposed educational justification for opening middle schools was undermined by the fact that after the four heavily black middle schools opened Boston dropped the plan for other students. 27 Here again, we see not inaction but new initiatives, explained only by a racial objective. The district court's language was strong and clearly correct, given the facts: 'The consequence of the feeder pattern changes and discriminatory options, in combination with the opening of four middle schools, was altogether foreseeable, almost immediate, and well-understood, by the defendants: a dual system of secondary education was created, one for each race. Black students generally entered high school upon completion of the eighth grade, and white students upon completion of the ninth.' 379 F.Supp. at 447--448.