FROM: Katherine Appy, Lawrence OBrien, Darius Modesto
RE: June 18th Statements As you know, the Equity Task Force was created upon vote of the Regional School Committee, and Dr. Shabazz was selected by the RSC as the Chair/Convener. It came to our attention that at the Task Force meeting on June 18 a comment was made by the Chair which raised great concern by task force members. Fifteen members were in attendance, and roughly a third of the membership has conrmed this comment. The comment followed a presentation related to building level equity work made to the Task Force by Betsy Dinger, ARMS Principal, and Mark Jackson, ARHS Principal. The Chair spoke about an incident which occurred this spring when secondary students of color decided to identify and beat up the greatest student racist they could nd. This particular incident, and the identity of the aggressors and the victim, was well known throughout the school community. As an ofcial of the Regional School Committee, the Chair risked violating the FERPA rights of all these students by making this public statement. The white student was aggressively and seriously assaulted. An investigation was conducted and no issue was raised in the course of the investigation about the student being a racist. Yet, the Chair has now inappropriately and publically exposed this student as one who is racist. Because of this outing of the student and the statement made by the Chair that the student was a racist, the parent has been notied about what occurred at the meeting and a written apology has been made on behalf of the Regional School Committee. Membership on our School Committees holds legal and ethical responsibilities. School Committee Policy BCA addresses School Committee Member Ethics, which provides both great latitude for expressing an individual opinion and also holds members to an ethical and legal standard of conduct when representing themselves as Committee members. It is a basic expectation that School Committee members share only correct information and that false accusations not occur. We thank you all for your time, and your dedication to improving our schools on behalf of all of our students.