(bright gentle music) (bright music) - Let me start out by saying, we are here to announce that the state of Connecticut has reached an agreement with the plaintiffs in the Sheff versus O'Neill case.

This agreement begins in a historic and meaningful way to resolve 30 years of litigation and to resolve one of the most important and complex cases of any kind in our state's history.

One of the most significant, desegregation and civil right cases anywhere.

- In the struggle for justice, we are accustomed to the fact that steps forward are accompanied by push back, steps backwards.

Today in this courtroom, we took a step forward.

(bright upbeat music) - In Hartford, Connecticut, schools were segregated and racially isolated in violation of the Connecticut constitution.

- The Connecticut constitution had a whole article entitled: Of Education.

Whereas the United States constitution says not one word about education.

- The lawyers chose 10 families, and requested that Milo and I served as the main plaintiff.

He was his mother's son.

We were community activists together.

He thought it was going to be like a "Judge Judy" episode, go in, state your case, 30 minutes, get your ruling, get this done.

I expected it to take a little longer, but not three decades.

- You can't overlook the fact that for 30 years, we've marginalized three generations of kids.

And the fact that there are a lot of children who fell through the cracks with the unintended consequences of Sheff.

- The worst mistake the courts make when they decide these cases is when they remand the case back to the state, the defendant, to develop the remedial plan.

That's like asking the foxes to guard the hen's coop because all the fox wants to do is eat the hen.

(keyboard typing) - The constitutions of many states have specific language promising that every child will have an equal opportunity to receive a good education.

The reality in many states is that children in the inner cities do not get the quality education available in the suburbs, which has led to a desegregation lawsuit in Hartford, Connecticut.

- The Hartford Courant ran a story, a kind of leak that the State Board of Education had produced a report, which later got nicknamed the Tirozzi report, named after Gerald Tirozzi, who was the commissioner of education.

And this Tirozzi report came out and concluded that Connecticut schools were segregated.

And Tirozzi quoted in that saying that segregation is illegal and it's immoral, and it's educationally unsound.

- These children are victims of compounded decades of delay and neglect by the state educational authority.

- And all of a sudden the mastery test scores came out and the Hartford community saw how the students in Hartford were at the bottom of the bottom.

They were not making reading goals, they were not making math goals, and they were not making writing goals.

- This was a hot, hot fire cracker going off at 4th of July.

(bright music) - We went to a community meeting where a group of public interest lawyers had talked to the community about the condition of education for Hartford children.

The statistic that caught my soul was that in 1989, 74% of students in Hartford's eighth grade needed assistance with remedial reading.

So to me, that is not a number that indicates failure of the student, to me, that indicates failure of the system.

Then I went to talk to Milo about it because you recall that Milo is the main plaintiff, I'm just his mother.

- It's fundamental, it's just like, you can't grow a tree without soil.

You can't have a better education, without the basic supplies, books, pencils, pens.

- And here we are, the state saying, you people shouldn't even adjudicate a case in the one area where there's an affirmative constitutional responsibility.

- I read the Connecticut constitution, and the CT constitution had a whole article entitled: Of Education, whereas the United States constitution says not one word about education.

So that's why I brought the case in the Connecticut Superior Court, in other words, a state court, not a federal court, claiming a violation of the education article, as well as the equal protection clause of the Connecticut constitution.

(children speaking faintly) - Sheff versus O'Neill gets underway in Hartford Superior Court.

Channel 3's Diane Alverio joining us from the courthouse with that story.

Diane.

- Well, Janet, the long awaited and much talked about Sheff versus O'Neill trial finally did get underway at about 12:30 today.

With the stage set for a legal battle that may take months in which is being watched closely across the nation.

- In addition to getting the legal theories together, you have to get the plaintiffs together, you have to get the experts together, you have to get the witnesses together.

So John primarily took the lead in going and recruiting potential plaintiffs, and that's how he found Elizabeth.

(light suspenseful music) - We just luckily hit the jackpot.

And not only did we find a strong courageous leader, almost like a dream come true out of the sky, she had a young child named Milo.

- Milo was already accustomed to community engagement, civil rights work, community activism, because that's who I am.

- We live in a country where people of color are not afforded the same opportunities as people who are White, simply because they are colored.

- We believe in social justice.

And so Milo was used to marching in Washington, candlelight vigils for persons living with HIV and AIDS, that was what I guess you thought normal life was about.

So he chose to be a plaintiff.

(indistinct) - [TV Reporter] On September 14th, so typically, (indistinct Television) - Love you.

- I love you.

- Have a good day.

(Kyon shouts playfully) All right, have a good day with that school work.

- Today, Connecticut runs a voluntary school desegregation program, that's been praised as a model for the nation.

Families in Hartford and nearby suburbs can enroll their kids at their usual neighborhood schools, or they can enter a lottery for the chance to send their kids to Magnet schools with specialized themes like arts or engineering.

There's also Open Choice, where city students can be bused out to attend suburban public schools or vice versa.

For schools to be considered integrated under Sheff, at least 25% of students must be White, Asian, Native Haw Pacific Islander, Native America or Alaska Native to be considered socioeconomically diverse, they must have fewer than than 60% of incoming students from low-income families.

And at least 30% of incoming stu from high-income families.

(keyboard typing) - We walked down on Farmington Avenue and then this light right, saw it on my bus stop on Asylum Avenue.

(bright music) (keyboard typing) (speaks faintly) - [School Announcement] Again, we should be in our classes, let's get there on time, let's change the world.

As always, make it a great day.

- A lot of this stuff has been debunked, but it's those childhood experiences and those unconscious feelings that psychologists are still thinking about today.

So this is an old theory, but this just kind of is an example of what Freud was talking about.

(children laughing) - There are a lot of White kids here, but obviously as we see that, this is more of Black and Hispanic kids.

Because I mean, half of our school is, well, more than half of our school is like from Hartford, you got Hartford, New Britain, Bloomfield, East Hartford.

So I mean, the school does have a lot of more Black and Hispanic kids than White kids.

(light music) I definitely do get a better education here, just say that, I'm far away from home, being in Hartford, I'm close to home, so one day might skip school or something like that.

Or I just be more distracted because I have a lot more friends.

Out in Hartford, I go to those public schools in Hartford.

Out here's like, I'm away from everything, all the distractions at home, I can just be myself and go to school.

We're going to advisory.

So basically it's just a class where we just go in, check in with our teachers about, basically like school and our grades and all that.

- [Teacher] I'm just gonna check in on Friday, so as long as they with you on Friday.

- People ask me, in Hartford, where do I go to school?

They automatically think, oh, you go to Weaver or Hartford Public or (indistinct), I'm like, "Nah, I go to school in Enfield" And they look at me crazy, like, "You go to school in Enfield?"

I'm like, "Yeah, I go to school in Enfield."

They're like, "Why do you go all the way out there?"

I was like, "Just to stay away, I say school environment, definitely have a better school environment here.

We're pretty much, compared to all the other high schools, a small school, so it's not like as crowded as a regular high school would be, where like a thousand plus kids.

And then the teachers wise, I say the teachers here, they're here for you, they're here for every student, everybody pretty much gets along.

You might have some students that still have their problems, but pretty much, a regular day here is pretty calm.

- Dr. Joe Mills Braddock, who has conducted national studies on the impact of segregated schools, was brought in to testify on behalf of the plaintiffs.

There are 17 Hartford school children who claim they're being denied the education guaranteed them under the state constitution because of their economic and racial segregation.

Braddock testified that his studies found that segregation patterns follow students through life as a result of what they learned early.

- I firmly, firmly believe that Sheff changed my life.

I'm the youngest of three children that were signed up for the case.

And because I was the youngest, I got to see it through.

I got to see from no magnet existing, to in the middle of my school career, going through a magnet's beginning and then its full evolution to a magnet being created in its own space.

There are things that at a younger age, you're still exploring and you don't understand.

And that's to me, the biggest difference that the Sheff case created within magnet schools and given an option, you're giving children an option to find their calling, children an option to find their community, an option to find what path they can find through school rather than having to wait till they're 20 and after high school to figure things out.

- [Reporter] The suit filed on behalf of Milo and 17 other students is now making its way through the courts.

- We are moving towards a multicultural, multiethnic, globally connected world.

Actually, you must be prepared to live in that world.

They can't be prepared to live in that world if they're segregated, if all they know, as Milo said, it's their own little hometown theories.

(bright music) - We interviewed principals, we interviewed teachers, we interviewed administrators to put together the best possible case, and so we put on 52 witnesses.

- [Reporter] She and two other witnesses wore the plaintiff's graphically and at times emotionally, describe the impoverished Hartford school system.

- They just have to air dry their hands because I can't afford in the maintenance budget to buy paper towels for the children 'cause I can't afford to keep toilet paper.

- A sense of being overwhelmed by the staff, how do you respond to these needs.

- And then he finally issued a decision and I will never forget the day that he issued the decision.

We all gathered at the ACLU building, and Wes Horton came over, and we got the decision, and we lost.

- We don't think the constitution has been breached in any way by the state because the state hasn't contributed to or caused the problems that are at the basis of the lawsuit.

- I sure remember too, that after Judge Harry Hammers' decision, attorney general, Dick Blumenthal and Roland popped a bottle of champagne and poured the glasses.

And toasted to their victory with the public press running.

- It had a tremendous detrimental effect on Milo, I just remember his face, to this day, the day that we lost, because all of us had put so much energy.

And more importantly, it was about the kids in Hartford, and they were still gonna be subject to a poor performing, under-resourced educational opportunity.

- Everyone was quite surprised and frankly shocked, that the trial judge ruled against us because all through the trial, we had all sorts of preliminary motions.

And it sounded as though he was very favorable to our case.

- There was no question that we were going to appeal after that.

(indistinct) - [Student] No, no, no, no, no.

(students conversing over each other) - [Henley] It's great meeting you guys.

When your next rehearsal?

- [Student] Next Thursday.

- [Henley] Next Thursday, all right, I'll be here.

- [Student] Cool.

- Nina, you're the- It was my godmother that got me into the Open Choice program.

I felt more along the lines of the conformity.

I so desperately desired to fit in, I wanted friends.

And I recognize that, okay, it's my differences that are separating us.

I actually had Black friends who actually helped challenge me to take those AP classes, take those honor classes.

It was actually my first friend here who was taking three, four different languages.

And I did not even think that was possible.

She challenged me to say, "Hey, pick up another language."

And that was when I actually started taking French and Spanish.

And she challenged me to not only be active in sports, but also in student government, also in theater, in the arts.

So I had friends who were Black, who also helps me say, "Hey, there's a thing called Black Excellence, "and you're gonna learn, (Henley laughs) "and we're gonna teach you."

And that's how it started for me to say, okay, it's okay to be Black, it's okay for me to be educated, It's okay for me to be active.

And it took me a while for me to get to that place.

(keyboard typing) (dog barks) - Katerina has ADHD, so she kept falling behind, behind to the point that they kept her back.

And she was very active too, she was all over the place.

So I, it was a real struggle and a challenge for me.

I moved her to Plainville, she was accepted through the choice program and the schools over there are more structured.

She did a lot better, ever since we moved to Plainville, she's never had any problems, she was brought to her school grade.

She actually is an honor student now.

(speaks faintly) - Socially, I have friends and stuff like that, it's just I don't feel like I fit in because I come from Hartford, I'm Hispanic, there is a decent amount of diversity here, it's not the best, but there still is diversity, but it still doesn't feel like I belong.

I don't look Hispanic, a lot of people have told me this.

I don't really look Hispanic, I look more Italian.

I just don't look Hispanic, so I don't experience it as much.

But I do experience it, like the time the boy was like, "You don't seem like the type to be in honors."

And I was like, "what's the type, what's your type?"

And he's like, "Oh, I don't know, you just don't seem like."

I'm like, "No, you have a type, "and you have to tell me what's the type."

And I told the teacher and he didn't really seem to care, he was like, "Oh, just ignore it."

It just really made me mad, and I felt bad for him too, 'cause I'm like, "You really gotta be really ignorant to think that, "I don't seem like the type, you don't even know me."

- After graduating from Breakthrough, I started CIBA the Connecticut IBA Academy.

And I went there all four years of high school.

My experience here was, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I imagined my high school experience to be because it was so different.

- Coming to West Hartford public schools, leaving a neighborhood or a community that looks just like me, coming to a community of students that do not look like me.

As a child, you don't really recognize the difference.

I was in kindergarten during our art class.

And the art teacher gave us this assignment, which was to create a self portrait.

And in the middle of the class, there was this box of skin toned crayons.

I went to go grab the crayon that everyone was grabbing.

And my friend looked at me and said, "You can't have that crayon.

"You're not tan, you're Black."

And I said, "I'm not Black, I'm brown."

(Henley laughs) And at that moment, I recognize that in this class where everyone was grabbing this particular crayon and I had to go grab a different crayon, that I was different.

- As I got older, there were a few times that I did have microaggressions towards me from other children.

Some of them were about my skin color.

Sometimes if the lights went off, turning off the light to watch a projector or something, "Oh, where'd Moriah go?"

And stuff like that.

And my friends also experienced the same thing throughout elementary, all the way up to high school.

I also experienced people telling me I'm too dark for certain things, like certain colors of clothing, hair colors, makeup, colors, anything.

(students chattering) - On Thursday, but I wanna give you guys the extra day to prepare.

- [Student] Thank you.

- So what our quiz is gonna be on, it's gonna be on vertex form So what we've been doing all last week and then what we're gonna start today, we're gonna start intercept form today.

(indistinct) - [Student] You just don't put any 'Y' value.

(speaks faintly) - [Student] I do.

(upbeat band music) - What I gather, parents want a quality education for the kids, they wanna be able to have a quality education within their community, in their neighborhood without having to bus their children outside.

And I think that Connecticut has systemic racism issues, but for the most part we're people, and if we can learn to live together and pay our taxes and be a community, that is more important than simply just putting us in a situation deliberately because you're White, I'm Black, he's Hispanic.

You can't overlook the fact that for 30 years, we've marginalized three generations of kids.

When you have youth violence, gun violence, and some all of the other discourse, you can't help but to look at the way these two systems were set up and the fact that there are a lot of children who fell through the cracks with the unintended consequences of Sheff.

- The wave of the future in this issue about minority and majority.

And so if kids don't understand other races, they're gonna get prejudices passed on from their parents.

And so I think the educational system is the leveling field.

(light music) - Parents said to me, if I have to choose a magnet school versus neighborhood school, I'm gonna choose a magnet school, if we were an ocean, my kid was drowning, and only the White kids had a life preserver.

I'm gonna tell my kid to hold on, find the closest White kid that can hold on for dear life, but that's not how it should be.

And I should not have to encourage my son to be a parasite and live off someone else's benefits because they have a life preserver and they don't.

My kid should either learn how to swim or get a life preserver as well.

I think psychologically that's harmful.

And I think that it's shameful that we put our families in that position.

- In Hartford and surrounding towns, there are now 40 Sheff magnet schools, attended by about 20,000 students from the city and suburbs.

Through Open Choice, about 2,300 Hartford students are bused to suburban schools like Plainville High.

But getting into a magnet school or suburban district can be difficult, students must enter a lottery.

And the state uses a complex formula to select winners.

About 6,000 Hartford students applied to magnet schools in 2020, and a little more than half were offered a seat.

While about 2,500 applied to Open Choice and about a third were offered seats.

For suburban students, almost 12,000 applied to magnets the same year, and about a third got offers, while almost at 1,200 applied to Open Choice, and about a 10th were offered seats.

The odds of getting into a magnet school could depend on factors like the popularity of a school, the grade level you're trying to enter, and the town you're from.

- I go to school at Buckley High School, and I'm a sophomore.

Buckley High School is a neighborhood school.

For middle school, I went to MD Fox, it's also a neighborhood school.

My education in middle school was terrible, we were in our classes working and there would be kids in the halls running, banging on doors, screaming for no reason, being disrespectful to the teachers.

(light somber music) In eighth grade, I talked to my counselor about high schools.

There's these neighborhood schools, but there's also magnet schools that undergo the lottery.

And she talked about the different magnet schools, and there was many possibilities and the school was bigger.

And I wanted to go to this magnet school because it was a very good school that would challenge me to do better.

And the environment was way better than my middle school.

But it's by chance and luck that you get into.

I applied to three different magnet schools.

They were all denied.

Seeing the results made me feel very disappointed, but also devastated as well.

My brother and I all applied at the same year and the three of us could not get in.

My mom didn't know what to do.

She knew that we were really good students, but it was just luck, and I guess we were unlucky.

There was three schools you could choose from.

If you couldn't get into any magnet schools, Buckley, Hartford High and Weaver.

(bright music) Buckley is not a good school at all, it's worse than my middle school.

There's people destroying bathrooms.

So now they have to take out glass, like the mirrors.

There are some students that are focused on doing their work, but there's also students blasting music and not paying attention and running around the classroom.

The teachers let it slide sometimes.

Yeah, they would get annoyed and call the security, but security won't come up for a little things like that.

So they would leave it alone.

There are some teachers that are really good.

The one teacher, the math teacher, he was really good at helping me and keeping me on track, making sure I was good.

I wanted to be a neurosurgeon because one day my doctor talked to me into it and I was really fascinated by it.

And I would like to work on the human body and brain.

Being at Buckley as a obstacle I have to go through obviously and eventually, but if I was in the magnet school, it would've been a better environment and experience.

- The case was lost, so we have to file appeal papers.

And then we file our brief and then the state files their brief, and then we filed a reply brief.

And everything was expedited, it went very fast.

(suspenseful music) - When we set out and made our appeal and brought it straight to the Connecticut Supreme Court.

- You never know what's gonna happen when you bring a case to the Connecticut Supreme Court, all we could do was put on the best case that we knew how given what we thought was tremendously compelling facts.

- The lawyers, judges, and journalists, often would ask what my perspective was when it came to the quality of school.

When it came to how diverse my school was.

And my role was providing context, real world context to that shift in resources, the shift in diversity, that was happening in my reality.

- So what happened is we come in here, into this room, and all seven justices come out on the bench and there's big crowds of people trying to get in.

I got up there and I think the only time I actually was not interrupted, when I said, "My name is Wesley Horton.

(Wesley laughs) "And I represent the plaintiffs."

One of the justices who was hostile to my position immediately jumped on me and started asking a question, is this about race?

Is this about ethnicity?

What is this about?

We immediately jump into the weeds of the case.

The point is it was a free for all.

- I hope that there's some actions taken and I hope that there's some integration.

They're not getting the experience in dealing with all types of different children.

- And if the constitution says everyone is entitled to a free public education on an equal basis, then the state has to provide it.

The state came up with an excuse saying why they aren't able to do it, or why it wasn't their fault.

- We packed every seat in the Connecticut Supreme Court, sitting right across the street from the Connecticut Capital, we did huddle on the steps of the court, both going in as well as coming out.

We didn't know how the court would decide, but we generally felt comfortable with what we had presented.

- And then the case was decided in July of 1996.

It was a four to three decision written by chief justice, Ellen Peter's, ruling in our favor.

- We were all seated in the same room, one of our teammates went to the end to see what was the judgment.

And he saw that the judgment was in favor of the plaintiff and he yelled out some kind of favorable sign and noise and voice.

And I looked down to the attorney general and his staff and their heads were down.

- I think after we read the decision, obviously we were extremely happy, ecstatic for the kids, because I think sometimes it's not about the lawyers, it's not about the egos, it's really about what is happening in your community.

- I knew at a very young age that there were people, lawyers and politicians advocating for the success of this change.

And I knew from my parents that they were one of those advocates who are trying to change my society and my upbringing.

- The decision by the Connecticut Supreme Court was the end of the trial.

- It was the Supreme Court that punted it to the general assembly.

They sent it to the politicians, which was a fatal move, in my opinion.

- [Reporter] Already there is controversy on how to go about complying with the court's decision.

- One of the challenges that we continue to have is that as we focus on the racial diversity question, what do we do about making the schools better?

How do we get more parents involved in the schools?

How do we keep kids in the school system itself.

And Hartford, 17% high school dropout rate?

How about the fact that almost one out of every five children born in Hartford is born to a teenage mom.

- And so the past 25 years has been a fight about the remedy.

(light music) - I'm from Andover, Connecticut.

So Andover, it's a small rural town, like 20 miles outside of Hartford.

And it consists of mostly White people.

My parents decided that they didn't want me in the town school system because it's not very diverse at all and they wanted me to have more exposure to help me in life and with relationships with people.

I think that that's a really good thing and I'm grateful they did that.

So it's good to know other people from different backgrounds and know people with different religions, backgrounds, ethnicities, races.

- [Announcer] This month is Hispanic Heritage Month, where we celebrate the variety of Latino cultures here at Classical, which include Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and a variety of countries in Central America and South America.

Our teachers have some great activities planned for this month, but students, if you have any ideas, please share them with your teachers.

We would love to have some school-wide events as well.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

One nation under God, indivisible with Liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, please have a seat.

- So we're gonna read for five minutes and then we're going to continue to work on our personal narrative drafts.

So after the five minutes, I'm gonna have you guys hop on to the drop that you guys were working on Friday, and we're gonna continue to use some of the things that we discussed on Friday.

(light music) - So on average, there's about three to four other White kids in my classes.

Being one of the only White kids in my classes, that doesn't really make me uncomfortable.

I've known most of my classmates since middle school.

And I'm friends with all of them, I have no issues with anyone within the school.

I can see how it would make certain people uncomfortable, just because there's not people similar to you.

A lot of my closest friends aren't why, I like getting along with like everyone, it's not an issue at all.

- Quintus is for the prosecution, he testifies against Salvius.

So part of it's where you are too, so Janae is gonna come over and move over here, and you guys should, you can turn your chairs.

Remember just keep the three feet.

And Michelle, if you wanna move over, you can where Janae is.

- However, some of the kids who haven't had the opportunity and are coming straight from those rural towns that have not diverse schools at all, I guess it could be a little different, maybe overwhelming, but not like it's an unsafe environment, the environment within the school is extremely safe.

And I don't see kids being scared of each other or anything.

- [Teacher] I think you guys do, right?

- [Student] I don't know.

- In urban areas, there are a ramification of holistic needs that many of our children come to school with that have to be taken care of in addition to basic education.

- But to me, Sheff versus O'Neill, is not an educational issue.

It's an issue of societal inequities, because as long as there are children going to bed where their only lullabies are gunshots, you can't equalize that just by busing them to another area.

(intense music) - [Reporter] Do you ever seen anybody get shot?

- [Children] Yes.

- I never did.

- A lot of people die from overdose.

- I guess they grew up in this type of environment and they see that is selling drugs, and that's the only way they know how to make money.

- For a parent coming into that situation, it's up to me to make sure that my child gets an education.

- Connecticut relies on local property taxes to fund schools more than nearly every state in the country, in communities like Hartford, where the state primarily builds public housing.

And 40% of housing is reserved for low-income residents.

This means less money for schools.

Wealthy these suburban towns have more funding for their schools because of higher property taxes.

While state funding aims to bridge the divide that results from segregation, studies have shown the state's formula falls short.

- Housing segregation is the number one cause of school segregation.

And the way to overcome the housing integration that contributes to school segregation, is to have school assignment districts go beyond the neighborhood.

- For example, one thing we'd like to solve is housing discrimination, but the Connecticut constitution talks about education, it doesn't talk about housing.

So you deal with what the constitution says.

- Every year, we in the negotiations bring up the symbiotic relationship between housing and education.

And we put forth proposals, housing proposals, and every year the state takes them off the table.

- That's what I call Connecticut, up south, people think that all the bad stuff, all the racism and the strife happens down south, here in Connecticut, we have our own unique brand of racism.

We do it more politely, same effect.

You see it in housing, if we could work on housing, we could organically produce integrated schools, but affordable housing in Connecticut and the zoning laws in Connecticut, You have towns that say, you can't have multi-unit dwellings.

That the lot has to be so big.

Effectively crushing affordable housing and the opportunity for people of color to live outside of center cities.

(students chattering) - In Hartford, I felt kind of abandoned.

And also, teachers weren't the nicest either, but education wise, I'm getting everything I need and more.

I didn't come here knowing how to read and all that stuff, they taught me.

(student chattering) - Welcome back.

Where we left last, we were planning a lab, an investigation, anybody remember what we were doing?

What were we try to investigate?

(light music) - Well, the school is more predominantly White, So I definitely have a decent amount of White friends.

But most of my friends I would say are Hispanic, and Black and Asian, especially the ones from Hartford.

The kids in Hartford, their parents, their grandparents never really got an education or have a very limited education.

Some are pushed a lot since they want them to succeed, - I believe in the word choice.

And there are families who choose to pursue an integrated education setting for their children.

And I think that that is the best setting to prepare our children to live in the real world.

- Some school districts like Berlin and Meriden seemed to be receptive, but other school districts are less receptive.

- There are some communities where it's been very difficult to even broach the issue.

And I think that that is something that we need to continue to pursue.

- [Reporter] People here in Simsbury and other similar towns across the state are now waking up to the desegregation issue.

The Sheff versus O'Neill case is forcing them to think about it.

- Let's first address the fact, is it educationally beneficial?

is it societally sound?

Is it important to the national fabric of the country to have young people of any color, race or creed work together?

Is it globally necessary?

Yes.

(phone rings) - [Jeff] Hey, Garrett, is that you?

- [Garrett] It is me.

- [Jeff] Come on in.

(bright upbeat music) If I had a dollar for every time a parent or somebody walked through the door and said, "Man, I wish I ha this when I was in high school, 'the opportunity to choose."

(speaks faintly) Congratulations.

Yes, yes, yes.

'Cause we're all connected, we're all invested.

And what I strive for my students is to know that they're loved and know that this is their home.

- [Mr Dewey] All right.

We're gonna the same thing with the rows.

So highlight rows one through eight.

- During this class, we're gonna do real-world stuff, like talk about like taxes, budgeting and all that.

So this right here, I guess we're just starting off.

So Mr Dewey just have us doing a little fun activity, but as we get into the course, we're actually gonna do our own tax returns.

So we're gonna practice doing tax returns.

We're going to talk about like budgeting our money.

- When you think of students like Kyon, that you see, or any of the students here, they choose to get on a bus every day and come here and be their best selves.

And when they walk across that graduation stage, if they know that they're loved and cared for, and they have a place that they can call home, then we've done our job.

- [Kimberley] Did I use the slope correctly?

- [Students] No.

- [Kimberly] What's my slopes tell me?

- [Student] Has to be three over one.

- [Student] Three over one.

- Go up three- - [Students] Over one.

- [Kimberly] Over one.

What did I do?

- [Student] You went up four.

- [Kimberly] I went up three over- - [Students] Three.

- Three, so bad slope.

I would say the most challenging aspect of being a teacher is convincing the students that they can do the math.

A lot of times they have the right answers, but they talk themselves out of it 'cause they say, "Oh, this is math class, I can't be right."

And it's more that they lack the confidence in themselves.

So that's my biggest challenge is trying to get their confidence up so that they can actually believe they can do the math.

And I have more confidence in them than they do sometimes.

So I try to say, "yeah, no, you got it."

(light music) Things that I observed about all our students, they really kind of get along with everybody from all backgrounds, races, cultures, it's really pretty inclusive, they don't all group together, oh, I'm from Tolland, I'm from Southington, I'm a Soccer.

They all kind of get along and help each other.

So you don't see a lot of us versus them within the school.

You guys know the value Y right?

(speaks faintly) That's what I got to do, just get (indistinct) 'cause I don't have enough room on my graph.

(bright music) I would say on average, in my classes, or within the school, probably did 20 to 25% of our students are White or identify as Caucasian.

Sometimes it's harder for our Hartford residents to get to magnet schools 'cause they don't meet the right demographics.

And sometimes for suburban families, they have way too many choices, so they don't know which way they wanna go, it's a lot harder to attract suburban families.

You have correct schools all over, you have magnet schools within each town.

Even some of the towns are making their own magnet schools so they can keep their own students.

So it's gotten harder for students to actually come to magnet schools 'cause there's way too many shiny new buildings for families to choose from.

So for Sheff versus O'Neil, I understand they wanna make the same educational opportunities for all students.

I totally understand that.

It's just sometimes when they're doing something they think is good, may be effecting some students without them realizing it.

- If the state provided seats for all the children who apply, there wouldn't have to be a lottery.

State doesn't do that, state chooses to cap the amount of resources, fiscal resources, so therefore you have a lottery.

I don't like the lottery either.

- I applied to, I believe 13 different schools.

The lottery system is just a luck based, they throw your name into a pool of other names, they spin a wheel and choose you.

(bright music) My top choice was the Greater Hartford Academy of the Performing Arts, because they had a lot of people that were smart and also had talked about the teachers and how many programs they have.

And I always thought it would be a great opportunity for me to go to college, 'cause I am gonna minor in music.

I got accepted into the Greater Hartford Academy of the Art School, but I had to take care of my mother who was sick at the time, and we couldn't go to the school physically to get the registration papers.

I've been taking care of my mother since I was 10 years old because of her illnesses in general, she's had a liver disease for most of my life.

I had no problem taking care of her, it was just a lot of work.

So I asked them through email, if they could send me the registration forms in the mail.

And they said, "Yes, of course."

But they never did.

(light somber music) And then all of a sudden, I get a call saying, "Dear Buckley High School student, "come pick up your backpack, school uniforms."

And I was like, "I don't go to Buckley, I go to this school."

I did try to reapply for the art school in my freshman year, but I didn't win the lottery that year.

So after that I couldn't apply anymore 'cause after freshman year, we can't apply for that school specifically, I checked into that.

I was just very surprised and I was very angry at the time.

I was angry because I applied myself into all my classes that I really wanted to get into, so I can get into that school and have the matching credentials that I needed.

But I felt like I wasted my time for something that I really wanted and I didn't get to do it.

When I was in ninth grade at Buckley, my mom unfortunately passed away from a liver disease, and I had to deal with that.

I miss a lot of school and I just stopped showing up, stopped doing my classwork, I just gave up.

But then I thought about it because my mom always wanted me to finish school.

I had a lot of motivation to go back to school, keep going.

And I feel as if Buckley made it easier because I had more friends there and I had a bunch of teachers that supported me, a bunch of counselors.

(bright music) I would say that the misconceptions people have about our schools is that everyone's violent, everyone's just trying to have an argument, everyone doesn't wanna do their work.

When in reality, we're all just trying to get past high school, we're trying to get through our own things.

We have our own things that we're dealing with, and yes, those things happen, but not like the way that people say.

They think it happens every day, it really doesn't.

- Helping some children is noble, but when you have a large assortment of children that are still desperately needing and requiring your help, it's a failed effort.

So it's difficult to say that it benefits the community at large.

And I don't think it's designed to do that.

It's designed to be a excuse the pun, but sort of like a peacock.

Here's what we're doing, we're doing these noble things, we're integrating, we're living Dr. King's dream, but we're not really facilitating the full dream.

And so that's all window dressing.

- If a thousand children wanna go, fund a thousand.

If it's 1,500, if it's 2,000, if it's 5,000, if this is what they want, fund it, fund the opportunity, fund the seat, that's what the state needs to do.

(light music) - I think what the important thing of an integrated education is it makes people more likely to want to agree with one another, to see that these differences that you think there are, are not such great differences.

And if there are differences, there are ways we should try to solve them and integrated education is one way.

Any way to resolve a problem about my kid can't get in or something, there are going to be problems, sometimes they're short term, sometimes they're long-term.

But the fact that there are problems with implementing an integrated education doesn't mean that you just give it up.

- Good afternoon, everybody.

Let me start out by saying we are here to announce that the state of Connecticut has reached an agreement with the plaintiffs in the Sheff versus O'Neill case.

Immediate part now, a major investment in Hartford schools and in providing educational opportunities to the students of Hartford and the region.

- [Analyst] Since 1997, when the state legislature approved a plan for voluntary integration, the Sheff plaintiffs have brought the state back to court numerous times over the last two decades.

In 2003, an agreement was reached to build eight magnet schools within four years.

In 2008, another settlement expanded magnets and open choice options with more schools and seats for Hartford students.

In 2017, the plaintiffs challenged, the state wasn't giving Hartford students enough opportunities to attend integrated schools.

The agreement in January of 2020 added 1300 new seats in magnet schools, it also revamped the lottery system to be based on socioeconomic status and require the state to develop a long-term plan to ensure any child who wants to go to school in an integrated setting will be able to do so.

- It was a milestone settlement, for the first time in the history of Sheff, not only did the governor come to the settlement conference.

- You gave us a kick in the back of our pants there, and we needed that 30 years ago, we had to wake up, our kids were falling behind, we're not getting their fair shot in the education.

We're gonna be opening up more seats in terms of our magnet schools.

- The best part of that settlement is the fact that the state and the plaintiffs agreed to work on a sustainability plan.

One that would ensure continuation of the schools no matter what.

So that's what I'm looking for.

Honestly, I asked Milo to come today, he declined.

Milo is here, still in the state, and trying to be not Milo Sheff, if you know what I mean.

he's trying to be Milo.

It has not been easy for him.

I believe that when we lost in the lower court, I saw his childhood dissipate right in front of me 'cause he was certain that we had put on a case that brought justice, and when that justice wasn't realized then, it took away something from him.

But we went on to the state Supreme Court and we won, but he's still not quite back from that, still not quite back from that.

I am not a Titanic person, I'm not the kind of person to say, well, if we can't save them all, let them all drown.

We have helped thousands of children, we have provided opportunity for thousands children.

And so like my mother would say, "If I can help just one somebody, I've done my job."

So we've helped a thousand somebodies.

Half full, half empty?

I think the glass is full, we just need a bigger glass.

(bright music) - [Narrator] Funding provided by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and Connecticut Humanities.