"I think those people believe that those minority students deserve better," says Janice Platner of the city's human rights commission, who also sat on the mayoral commission. "But I think they believed that they deserved better somewhere else."

"Intellectually, they aren't racists," Planter says. "But in their hearts?"

"I don't think anyone who signed that petition was blameless," she adds.

Could so many people from one of the most liberal areas of one of the country's most liberal cities possibly have been motivated by racism in their efforts against the school? Could Brooks have really goaded city officials into launching a campaign of systematic harassment against the school over the summer of 1988, as some school affiliates have suggested?

Or were the majority of the petition signers duped into lending their support to a matter about which they had been misinformed, as many contended? The answers to these questions are still far from obvious, and throughout a hotly contested fall city council race, politicians of all stripes--but primarily the city's conservative bloc--jumped on the school's departure for their own political ends. "Hypocrisy doesn't end with the Commonwealth Day School," read one popular banner displayed by the anti-rent control Small Property Owners Association.

And while the mayoral commission appointed to investigate the matter found significant evidence of bias, the City Council has yet to take any significant action to address the findings. Stanley Eichner of the Massachusetts attorney general's office says that the state is still conducting its own investigation into possible civil rights violations.

And throughout the controversy, Myette and school officials have remained silent, explaining that they do not want to cause any more problems for their parents, teachers or children. When addressing an October rally prompted by the school's departure, Myette made no mention of any racial problem. "Our needs are simple," he told the crowd. "Students, students, and scholarship funds for them."

"It was already over before anyone got involved," says the mayoral commission's Daily, arguing that despite the city's sudden burst of concern over the school's departure, it has done little to remedy the situation.

"I think it's probably the worst thing that ever happened to Cambridge," Daily says.