Opening Doors for Open Choice

Register

The Glastonbury nonprofit TALK (Truth in Action with Love & Kindness) invites the public to “Opening Doors for Open Choice: Glastonbury and the Sheff Civil Rights Settlement,” a free Zoom webinar on Wednesday, May 11, at 7 p.m.

Presented in collaboration with Welles-Turner Memorial Library, this community conversation will cover the constitutional right to equal, integrated education, and the Sheff v. O’Neill recently settled lawsuit on Connecticut’s failure to meet its constitutional obligation. It also will focus on Glastonbury’s participation in the Open Choice program, which enables urban students to attend public schools in suburban districts, and suburban and rural students to attend public schools in urban areas.

Speakers will include Elizabeth Horton Sheff, Sheff Movement Co-Chair and plaintiff in the landmark civil rights lawsuit; Martha Stone, Co-Counsel for the Sheff case from its inception through recent settlement; and Tracy-Ann Johnson, parent of a Glastonbury Open Choice student and member of Glastonbury’s former Racial Justice and Equity Commission.

Sheff will share how she and her then 10-year-old son, Milo, and the nine other plaintiff families, joined together in 1989 to sue Connecticut over the disparities in education available to Hartford vs. suburban public school students. She will explain why the Sheff case and movement continue to be vitally important today, and will describe the role of the magnet and Open Choice programs in helping to ensure access to equal education opportunities.

Stone will explain the state constitutional protections at the heart of the Sheff lawsuit, and provide an overview of the case’s three-decade trajectory in the courts. Johnson will discuss why she decided to send her child to a Glastonbury public school through the Open Choice program, and will describe her own and other families’ experiences with the program. Registration is required. Visit https://tinyurl.com/y2hrp5zk to register