Update on Ann Arbor's separate and unequal field trips

May 14, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Joshua Thompson

Late last week, I mentioned the outrageous story of Dicken Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  As you recall, that school decided to send a group of African-American students on a field trip to see a renowned rocket scientist.  All other students, white and minority alike, were prohibited from going on the field trip.

Now, we learn that this was not a one time event.  In fact, the "African American Lunch Bunch" was a weekly group.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that the outrage that followed the infamous racist field trip has led Ann Arbor Public Schools to disband the group.  The school district recognized that Dicken Elementary was "in violation of … Michigan state law."  [Not to mention the United States Constitution.]

That's a good end to this story.  But one has to wonder why it took national outrage for the school to act out against something so blatantly immoral and unconstitutional.  Regardless, it is refreshing for the school to denounce and disband the program before litigation became necessary.