[1] However, white flight from the city of East Palo Alto led to a rapid increase in the percentage of African American students during the 1960s;[2] both the Congress of Racial Equality and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People expressed concern about de facto segregation.
The sit in was Captained by Charles Boulding (Student Body President) and Odia Chiles who later became Mayor of East Palo Alto.
In 1968 the district had adopted a voluntary transfer program that essentially legalized the Sneak-out;[3] in 1971 it introduced a voluntary busing program to reduce segregation in all its high schools, and also sought to make Ravenswood a magnet school, introducing an experimental curriculum including three- to six-week "mini-cycle" courses in subjects such as scuba diving, pottery, photography, golf, and mountaineering, and academic advisement and "houses" based on astrological signs.
In July 2013 the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, working with the law firm of Bingham McCutchen, submitted a report to the district school board asserting that bussing the East Palo Alto students to such schools as Carlmont rather than to Menlo-Atherton was a violation of their legal rights.
[6] In October that year, the district announced that it would make it easier for East Palo Alto students to attend Menlo-Atherton.