Lowell got rid of competitive admissions. New data shows how that's impacted the school's diversity

Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, a critic of the new admissions policy, noted that before the change Lowell’s student body was 82% non-white.

The board’s problem is not underrepresentation, it is “a perceived over-representation of a community of color the Board disfavors — Asian Americans,” she wrote in a 14-page letter to the board after its decision in March.

Other opponents of the move, who filed a lawsuit over it in April, said the board’s February vote violated the state’s open meetings law by fast-tracking the issue and failing to gain proper public input.

They also argued that instead of ensuring that all students were qualified to attend and welcome at Lowell, they took away a point of pride in the city, one of the top-performing public schools in the country, which has perennially churned out prominent figures in politics, entertainment, literature and science.

“They failed the underrepresented students,” said attorney Christine Linnenbach, who represents the opponents, adding that the district has created a “false narrative that merit-based education cannot be equitable education.”