To comply with the district desegregation plan, the San Francisco Unified School District previously required higher scores for Chinese American students applying to the academic magnet, Lowell High School, than for more under-represented groups. Several Chinese parents sued the district, challenging the legality of the desegregation plan, which led to the recent end of race-based assignments. This paper examines the admissions debate at Lowell High and suggests that the exclusion of Asian and Latino concerns in the district's policymaking process led to the lawsuit. It examines Lowell enrollment figures and discusses misconceptions about high-achieving African American and Latino students. Though race-based admission ended, the debate still continues. For example, African American and Latino students in the highest possible point bracket matriculate to Lowell at well below the average rate, possibly because the admissions policy may have created a hostile environment that led people to assume that all minority students were admitted under preferential criteria. The American public education system has not yet found an effective way to address the needs of low-income and low-achieving students. (Contains 23 references.) (SM)