Dr. Benjamin Williams is the first principal for the new Ron Brown College Preparatory High School. (Photo courtesy of DC Public Schools)

By Christina Sturdivant and Rachel Sadon

The District’s first all-boys school opened this year. Or did it?

Ron Brown College Preparatory High School, part of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Empowering Males of Color Initiative, welcomed students this fall in Deanwood to both fanfare for its focus on boys’ well-being and criticism that it leaves girls behind. Even though the Office of the Attorney General believes that the initiative and the school fall within civil rights laws, the D.C. Public School System is refusing to clarify the school’s admissions policy.

The confusion began after the American Civil Liberties Union of the Nation’s Capital issued a press release today lauding DCPS for supposedly reversing its policy on girls’ admission to the Ron Brown College Preparatory High School based on a conversation they had with “several top officials from the Office of the Attorney General.” But the Office of the Attorney General’s quickly office fired back and said that no change had been made.

The original policy remains unclear, though, as DCPS adamantly refused to answer a pretty simple question: can girls apply and be admitted?

“It’s an all boys school,” DCPS spokeswoman Michelle Lerner said when asked that question several times this afternoon. When asked for further clarification about the policy regarding gender, she would only say that “no changes have been made.” Lerner instead repeatedly referred to a statement that “DC Public Schools has made no policy change in regards to Ron Brown College Preparatory High School, the new all-boys school.” When the application period opens for the next school year, “we look forward to serving another class of outstanding young men at this school designed for the specific needs of young men,” the statement reads. The DCPS web page for the school says “there are no application criteria—all students should apply” without reference to gender.

The mayor’s office referred DCist to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education. When asked if girls were able to apply and be admitted, Deputy Chief of Staff Shayne Wells simply said “the school is for young men.”

In a statement earlier today, the Office of the D.C. Attorney General said: “Our office is disappointed that the ACLU has inaccurately characterized details of that conversation. As DCPS has made clear, they have not made any policy change with regard to admissions to Ron Brown. Contrary to suggestions by the ACLU, OAG did not say that the admissions policy had changed, nor did our office say that DCPS has any plans to change that policy in the future.”

When pressed for further detail, the OAG refused to clarify what exactly the admissions policy is as it relates to girls, instead directing inquiries to DCPS.

Evidently the ACLU has been asking the same questions for over a month, the organization said in a statement that sought to clarify their earlier release.

“For over a month the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital had asked the AG’s office for a copy of the admissions policy for Ron Brown. On Friday representatives of the AG’s office called the ACLU, indicated they had spoken to the General Counsel for DCPS, and said there was no written admissions policy that differed from the lottery admission policy for all DCPS schools.

The ACLU then asked two very specific questions: Can girls apply through the lottery to Ron Brown High School? If they apply through the lottery will they be accepted?

The representatives from the AG’s office answered “yes” to both of those questions. While this was a change in what the ACLU had learned prior to Friday’s conversation, now OAG is saying this has been policy all along and that girls can be admitted – and could have been admitted in the 2016-17 class.

If DCPS has a different admissions policy, one that restricts Ron Brown to only admitting boys, they should produce the policy.”

The debate over the admissions policy dates back to last February, when Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh questioned the fairness of opening the school and asked the OAG to examine the issue. According to a U.S. Department of Education regulation, if a school system creates a same-sex public school for one gender, they must also provide substantially equal opportunities for the other gender. Cheh’s concerns were echoed last year by the ACLU, which has brought lawsuits and filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Education to block single-sex schools in several states that they believe violate its policy.

After looking into the plan, though, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine determined in March that opening the all-boys school would not undermine similar educational opportunities that already exist for girls in the District.

In May, the ACLU released a report noting that girls of color suffer from many of the same problems as their male counterparts“including poverty, a highly racially segregated school system, overpolicing, racial bias, and high incidence of family violence and trauma.” They also face “unique obstacles, such as gender-based violence, teen pregnancy, and family obligations that undermine their academic progress,” the report continued.

In a statement today, Cheh said: “I continue to be disappointed that DCPS is denying girls admission to this initiative. I believe that the District is constitutionally required to give at-risk girls the same opportunity as at-risk boys.”

In the updated statement, executive director of the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital Monica Hopkins-Maxwell added: “We had been delighted to learn on Friday that girls would be given the same equal educational opportunities as boys. The D.C. Government should be clear about its admissions policy—to do otherwise erodes the public trust.”