At the recommendation of ORR Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson, the agenda to the November 7 public meeting of the Old Rochester Regional Joint School Committee/Superintendency Union #55 was rearranged to put Open Meeting Law complaints at the top.
Two complaints filed relative to the Joint School Committee, one was against Anne Fernandes, a member of the Rochester School Committee and the Superintendency Union #55 side of the JSC, and the other against Joe Pires, a member of the ORR School Committee and that committee’s side of the JSC.
Both complaints, noted Nelson, cite the members’ roles in the Joint School Committee. As a result, explained Nelson, the JSC is required to follow procedure outlined in the attorney general’s Division of Open Government.
Those requirements include that the respective chairpersons share the complaints with all committee members and that the committees respond to the complaints in writing within 14 business days. Since the JSC was not to meet soon enough to comply with that requirement, Nelson told the JSC he sought and got an extension from the state that would encompass the November 7 meeting of the JSC.
Nelson recommended the JSC sides vote to delegate/authorize attorney Peter Sumners (in attendance via Zoom) to respond on behalf of the JSC to the complaints. Sumners is already representing the ORR School Committee in the matter, while the prior complaint filed against the Rochester School Committee was delegated to Rochester Town Counsel Blair Bailey.
As noted in recent ORR and Rochester school committee articles in The Wanderer, the allegations filed by Rochester resident Rhonda Baptiste stem from Facebook posts made in a public forum discussing sexual content in books in the high school and junior high libraries.
In summarizing the situation to the members of the JSC, Sumners said, “Neither I nor Attorney Bailey identified any Open Meeting Law violations, based on our reading of the attorney general’s determination concerning social-media posts.”
After both sides of the JSC voted without dissention to authorize Sumner to respond on behalf of the JSC, Sumner told the meeting he would provide the membership with his response.
In the Open Comment session that immediately followed the committee’s dealings with the Open Meeting Law complaints, Baptiste, attending in person, spoke in her role as director of Community Engagement for the citizens’ group Tri-Town Against Racism.
She shared a discriminatory act that was reported to TTAR, stating that “There were members of the (school) committee didn’t believe there was an issue in our community or that there wasn’t any change necessary or any action that needed to be taken.”
In response, said Baptiste, TTAR “created a mechanism where community members could report discriminatory incidents that happen throughout the community.”
Baptiste reported 14 incidents, 12 of which she said were school related. Ten of those, she said, happened since the 2022-23 school year began at the end of August. Five incidents occurred at the junior high school, five at Old Hammondtown Elementary School (Mattapoisett), and two at the high school, she stated.
Nine of the incidents, she stated, involved racism – Baptiste reported three incidents of racial epithets – and two involved homophobia and transphobia. Two incidents involved disability and two involved general appearance, Baptiste stated.
More than one discriminatory category can apply to the same incident in TTAR’s reporting mechanism, according to Baptiste.
Baptiste concluded her remarks by announcing her intentions to report those incidents and any subsequent discriminatory incidents to the Anti Racism Subcommittee when it meets in January.
Art Leclair of Mattapoisett spoke next about the content in books in ORR schools, comparing his experience long ago and suggesting that while he has a problem with the content in some of today’s books, he qualified his remarks as against the banning of books, putting the onus on parents to raise their children and guide their decisions.
Alison Noyce, a member of Tri-Town Against Racism, spoke about a meeting she attended billed as “What Are Your Children Learning in School?” a meeting that she said did not match its billing. Instead, Noyce said she encountered a list of books apparently disapproved by the meeting’s organizers.
Noyce then read a letter previously shared in recent school committee meetings that expresses citizens’ concerns about the efforts of some to censor materials that they believe support principles of inclusion and “underrepresented” children, including those of color, who are indigenous or with diversities in sexual orientation or identity. The letter was signed by 631 people, including over 500 community members.
Noyce reminded those listening into the meeting that parents have the option to request that their children not read certain books.
Vanessa Miller of Marion, who described her ethnicity as Mexican, said she has a problem with the books containing sexual content in the school libraries. “My heritage, my culture, does not go with that,” she said, stressing her approval of racially diverse subjects.
Kate Hartley of Marion said, “This book ban is not about protecting our kids from data, documents, images (or) pornography, what this book ban is is an attempt to (promote) fear literature and to pull BIPOC literature out of our schools, which is one of the only places that some kids can access literature that may be the only (source) they have that represents how they’re growing up.”
Hartley gave many examples of the content in required reading already on the shelves in public schools when she was interrupted by an attendee, at which point ORR School Committee Chairperson Michelle Smith instructed the person that any comments must be made toward the committee chair.
“The thing is, if your kid is looking for that information, if your child is queer, they are going to find it. Would you not rather they find it in a place that is safe?” Hartley asked.
LGBTQ youth, asserted Hartley, are more than four times likely to attempt suicide than those not in those categories, reaching 45%. She said one of the things that combat those tendencies are affirming places.
At the conclusion of the Open Comment session that reached its maximum, 15-minute time limit as governed by statewide policy, another outburst occurred, causing commotion to the meeting, which was hastily adjourned.
There will be no school across the district on Thursday, November 10 (professional-development day) and no school on Friday, November 11 (Veterans Day.)
The next meeting of the Joint School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 6:30 pm at the ORR Junior High School media room and accessible via Zoom.
ORR Joint School Committee / Superintendency Union #55
By Mick Colageo