TO: Equity Task Force Members

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.