ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 25, 1997 TAG: 9704250067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Three white children want to attend an Alexandria magnet kindergarten.
The parents of three white Arlington County preschoolers have filed a lawsuit challenging the county's minority preference policy for its three magnet schools.
However, county officials said they already are seeking to eliminate race from the policy that is the subject of the suit filed in U.S. District Court.
Without the policy, the suit contends, Lara Tito would have been admitted to the Arlington Traditional School kindergarten for this coming fall. Children are admitted on the basis of a lottery, but the county reserves 23 of 46 slots for minority children, the complaint alleges.
The other plaintiffs, Caitlin Levine and Logan Andors, said they would have been higher on the waiting list and would have had a better chance of enrolling in later grades.
The plaintiffs said 21 percent of white applicants were admitted, compared with more than half of the minority applicants.
Thursday, the school superintendent proposed striking minority preferences from the admission policy.
Steven Levine, Caitlin's father and the attorney representing the children, said the suit will go forward even if the policy changes because the new rules wouldn't be retroactive. The parents want a federal judge to order the county to redo this year's lottery without racial preferences.
LENGTH: Short : 38 linesby CNB