Leo and Karen Harrington were two of the plaintiffs involved in the Sheff v. O’Neill lawsuit during the 1990s. Recounting their experience with the case, the Harringtons discuss how many of their friends and neighbors in West Hartford did not have a very good understanding about what the lawsuit was about or what it would mean for Connecticut. Most people were generally uninterested because the case dealt with inadequate schooling, which was “Hartford’s problem.”<\/p>\n
However, the Harringtons are proof that the concerns raised by the plaintiffs in Sheff v. O’Neill did not just affect poor and minority residents of Hartford. The Harringtons are a white, middle class family that lived with their two sons in the West End of Hartford. They loved the neighborhood and the local Noah Webster elementary school, but once their sons reached middle school age they realized that the city’s public education system had severe problems. Because the law required their sons to attend a district school, the only way for them to get access to a better education was to move. Although the schools in their new West Hartford neighborhood were dramatically better, the Harringtons still miss life in their West End home.<\/p>\n