Boston does not have a great track record with our African American population. Many athletes do not like to play in Boston due to our racial issues. Just ask Dee Brown. 
There is much innumeracy in assessing these issues: apparently the number of blacks in Boston enrolled in public schools has declined significantly over the same time period, Boston Latin is a significantly more competitive school than the others and has become more so, thankfully racial quotas requiring 35% of seats be reserved for blacks and Hispanics were eliminated so admiitance has probably reverted to an accurate percentage . It doesn’t mean that there may or may not be some validity to the claims but thus far nothing concrete has been disclosed. A great number of elite schools have had issues ranging from racism, to rape to drug running and so on. People are still going to those schools.
I don’t think this should be the only factor in choosing BB&N vs BLS. I brought it up because someone asked what the OP meant about BLS being in the news.
Of the private schools we visited, many were quite open about the steps they are taking to improve race relations on campus and to get dialogue going about national issues of race. They admitted things weren’t perfect at their schools but they were working hard to improve. That impressed me a lot.
Numbers may not be my strongest suit, but I don’t think I’ve ever been accused of being innumerate before. @Center is correct in saying that the black student population in Boston public schools generally has declined, just as Boston Latin’s has. But I wasn’t trying to suggest that the decline in Boston Latin’s black student population was the result of discrimination. Rather, my point was that if black students already feel marginalized in the school’s culture and the way they’re treated by teachers and other students, then the fact that the black student population continues to shrink is likely to only make that problem worse.
At least in MA, high school population is down overall which trickles down to each sub-population. I work in higher ed and a city we serve with a high population of black students graduated 200 less students last year. Predictions are similar for the next several years and will begin to recover about 2020.
Thank you all for your excellent input. Based on your suggestions here, we’re trying to have him shadow a current student there to see if he fits into the school culture. He is open to both, staying at current school cause going to BLS, but this will help us judge fit. Another option may be for us to move to Lexington and maybe have him go to public there, but that would be a significantly longer commute for us to work
LHS is a great school. Joe Q and The Math Club is amazing. That said I would still pick BL.
Laenen: I can’t tell you how much that comment helped, actually I have no way of hissing parity, being new here
Judging not hissing. Sorry