Keller @ Large: Truth Isn't Always Readily Apparent

BOSTON (CBS) - Hopefully, it's widely understood that the truth is not always readily apparent, especially hard truths.

No one who has viewed unambigous videos of police violence against African-Americans can reasonably dismiss concerns about police-community relations, or pretend that civil rights progress has rendered those issues moot.

And while we see too much outright racism on the news or the web or the streets, no fair-minded person condones it.

So when concerns about racially-charged incidents at Boston Latin School surfaced last winter, it caused a sensation. If racism was widespread at the city's flagship high school and treated with indifference by those in charge, what a terrible setback to the community.

No wonder there was an uproar that led to the resignation of two top Latin administrators.

But now, the results of a school department investigation of 76 accusations of biased conduct against students and administration have been released. And they show that there was an actual violation of nondiscrimination policy in 17 of those 76 cases - roughly two out of ten.

That is 17 too many.

But does it really support the often-repeated claim of a "widespread" or "systemic" problem? Seven of the 17 violations concerned biased activity by students, but they don't tell us what that was. The other ten involved teachers or administrators; again, no details.

School officials should do whatever is necessary to get those numbers down to zero. If sensitivity training is required, do it.

But grandstanders who so harshly indicted Boston Latin before we knew the truth could use a little fairness training themselves.

Listen to Jon's commentary: