Federal judge withdraws opinion after anti-white texts emerge in Boston public schools case

Judge William Young, who had issued an opinion favoring the school system's plan to factor ZIP code into admissions, said that he could no longer stand behind that opinion after it appeared that the body's push was motivated by racial animus. During a Friday hearing, Young said that he had been misled when the offensive texts were not originally included in the school's testimony.

"I've been misled, and I don't see how the opinion can stand," Young said, noting that he has never once retracted an opinion in his 35 years on the bench.

The texts, a conversation between former member Alexandra Oliver-Davila and former member Lorna Rivera addressed their hatred of West Roxbury, a mostly white neighborhood in Boston. "I hate WR," Oliver-Davila texted Rivera, to which Rivera replied: "sick of westie whites." Oliver-Davila then followed up, "Me too I really feel Like saying that!!!!"

The texts were leaked last week to several news outlets after Young decided the case in favor of BPS. Both Oliver-Davila and Rivera resigned shortly afterward. At that point, the case had already been appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit by the Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence, where it has yet to be heard.

Young in the Friday hearing said that it was "ludicrous" that the texts had not originally been included in the school system's testimony.