By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — Heated exchanges flared at TEAM Westport’s Thursday meeting when the town’s multi-cultural and inclusivity committee considered endorsing the “No Place for Hate” initiative in the town’s schools.
The program, created by the Anti-Defamation League, was introduced in Westport schools at the beginning of the 2024-25 academic year. It aims to promote collaboration among students, educators and the community to proactively oppose bias and bullying.
A “snitch culture?”
“No Place for Hate is creating a snitch culture,” TEAM Westport committee member Phillip Gallo said. His criticisms of the program include his belief that it encourages students to report on each other.
“Social justice advocates” assert “that oppression is prevalent … that gender has nothing to do with if you’re born with a penis or vagina. … We’ve seen a lot of cancel culture,” Gallo added, suggesting that concerns about racism and other inequalities have been exaggerated or are untrue.
“I oppose [endorsing the program] as a member of this committee,” he said.
Bailey: “History is steeped in racism”
Those opposing Gallo’s views included TEAM Chair Harold Bailey Jr., who reminded the gathering there are many examples of oppression and systemic racism in American history.
“When I was a boy, I couldn’t go to the library in my town. I couldn’t go to the same school as others. I couldn’t try on clothes in the department store,” Bailey said.
“History is steeped in racism,” Bailey added. “… You have to understand that is where we came from.”
Goals of the No Place for Hate program “are part of the charter of this committee,” he said.
“This is all about basic decency”
Committee member Maggie Mudd agreed. She called No Place for Hate “an aspirational program” that focuses on teaching children how to respect others.
“We’re off to the wrong start,” she said about the discussion that began with Gallo’s remarks. “This is all about basic decency.”
“There have been people who have had to move from here because of what happened in the schools,” Mudd said. “… This is all about creating a space where children can prosper, where we can foster understanding and dignity in town.”
“DEI programs cause divisiveness”
TEAM committee member Andy Frankel agreed with Gallo’s comments. “A lot of research shows that DEI programs cause divisiveness,” he said, an opinion that caused other TEAM members to ask him to cite the research he was referencing. He did not.
At one point, a few members of the public yelled out, asking to be heard, but were stopped by Bailey, who said the discussion should first be limited to committee members. Public comments are heard at the end of meetings.
After the discussion, TEAM members voted 9 to 3 to endorse the No Place for Hate program implemented in Westport schools. Those dissenting were Gallo, Frankel and Joo Hee Kerschner.
When Bailey asked for public comments at the end of the meeting, no one spoke about No Place for Hate, either positively or negatively.
Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.
Mr. Bailey is absolutely correct when he cites that “there are many examples of oppression and systemic racism in American history” – starting with slavery. White skinned people are not better or worse than dark skinned people but it’s the white skinned people who did the enslaving. What kind of people do that? Racism is still at the heart of almost every aspect of American life. Thank you, Mr. Bailey for keeping us focused on that fact.
Team Westport will soon become irrelevant, if it insists in promoting a DEI agenda that the majority of Americans have clearly rejected. Even RINO Tooker understands that the political landscape has changed, and has removed the DEI and BLM statements from the entrance of City Hall.
Thank you to the three brave members of TEAM Westport who opposed a really hateful program intended to further indoctrinate our children in public schools.
The majority of Americans did not vote for Donald Trump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_and_independent_candidates_for_the_2024_United_States_presidential_election
Trumper received 77,303,568 votes, Kamal Harris received 75,019,230 votes and other party votes received 2,882,698 votes. Totaling the Harris votes and the “other” votes comes to 77,901,928 votes. If you do the math, you can see that Trump does not have a majority or a mandate. Most Americans want DEI and decency and justice for past wrongs. Hopefully you will adjust your attitude accordingly.
You really need to give this up Rozanne. He won the electoral college, the popular vote and the swing states votes. If you add in the also rans to his side, instead of Kamala’s, the number she lost by gets even bigger. But, so what….these votes were not for her or Trump. What a ridiculous argument you are making here. As for past wrongs being addressed, they have been at the governmental level. Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, etc. are not allowed and should not be. Having said that, individuals, in a free country, can have biased views and suffer the consequences of social opprobrium if they express them publicly. As a country we can only move forward and I resent being told that, as a white person, I must carry the original sin of slavery and discrimination due to the behavior of others in the past.
Funny you mention “snitching”, Camilo Riano.
The soon to be extinguished Department of Education has provided a form for wannabe Pavlovick Morozov’s to report crimes of DEI.
https://enddei.ed.gov/
Apologies Com. Riano. It is Comrade Gallo who mentioned “snitching,”.
Snitching like that of Pavolick Morozov may warrant national recognition soon—especially if it sends one’s own friends or family members to someplace like Guantanamo and helps eradicate crimes of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion.
Apologies Com. Camilo Riano. It was Comrade Gallo who mentioned “snitching.”
Pavlik Morozov, a young boy, was celebrated for informing on his father and made a national hero by Comrade “Card Catalogue” Stalin… who, like Comrade Musk controlled a population through the possession of identity information and statistics. You have an opportunity offered by the Department of Education to put your DEI espousing fellow Westporters in the sights of whoever actually enforces this newly criminal behavior.
No apologies needed… I know you were referring to Mr. Gallo.
Nevertheless, I do agree with you that when the government criminalizes free speech we end up in tyranny.
At the local level, programs like “No Place for Hate,” which are based on a very subjective definition of hate, end up with the implementation of a ‘Committee for the Prevention of Hate and the Enforcement of DEI,’ which I am sure Mr. Bailey would love to chair.
Lefties really need to calm down. The completely vile DEI initiatives of discrimination against white people and the elevation of unqualified individuals based on their minority group status is being dismantled. No one will be hauled off to a gulag or other work camp even if they are reported as continuing the aforementioned DEI policies, as they relate to the education of children. They may very well lose some federal funding and hopefully be dismissed from their positions. The usual “hair on fire” response from the left is becoming tedious.
I have known Harold Bailey since our daughters played on the same Westport Warriors soccer team for years. He is a thoughtful and accomplished man who,barred as a boy from the library and department store and certain schools , grew up to be an advocate for others who are experiencing difficulties because of covert and overt racism and exclusion. That this should cause a raucous discussion at a Westport Committee meeting stuns me. Now we know we have to protect our schools against those who want to use a silly caption- DEI-to stop genuine and well meaning efforts at enhancing the playing field for all students.
I’m surprised that some people still confuse DEI with Affirmative Action.
DEI has nothing to do with hiring practices that give preference to underrepresented and disadvantaged groups. DEI – which stands for Diversity, Equality, Inclusion – is a concept, not a practice. It promotes respect for all people and works to minimize prejudice. The focus is on underrepresented and disadvantaged groups — like people of color, veterans, people with disabilities, etc. — but the goal is the acceptance of different perspectives and the allowance of a more diverse and inclusive workforce, giving all Americans equal opportunities according to their abilities.
I am surprised that you are unaware that the practice of DEI manifests itself in the schools when children are taught to accept their roles as victim or oppressor, accept anti scientific views of gender, reimagined history, etc. When they leave the indoctrination factory, they have been primed to accept DEI hiring and promotion policies which discriminate against them if they are white (or asian btw). DEI is antithetical to commonsense and the concept of merit. I don’t want a diverse team of morons running my country or the schools in it either.
During the Westport BOE meetings prior to the last election, there were people discussing school policies on DEI during which Ms. Goldstein and others were supporting DEI in schools. I know from people with kids in our schools that they teach kids to accept trans kids assertions to be a sex that they are not. XY does not become XX via amputation of the male organ. That would be anti science.
Non factual screeds like The 1619 Project were in the CT schools curriculum. In fact, a professor named Bergman sued the state to have it removed. The teaching of this type of material can obviously create a feeling for the white child of guilt and minority group children as victims. They were even doing this in Westport school system a generation ago when my kids were there.
Example: An assignment given to my son to write a paper about the influence of Columbus on the new world but it had to be all negative. I name him put a final paragraph that enumerated some positives and the teacher gave him a bad grade for not sticking to assignment…negative only! I was forced to go speak to the teacher. My daughter had a class under the “Health” rubric, teaching the children that homosexuality is normal. By any definition, that is not true. Normal meaning not deviating from average, which it most certainly does, the practice of which results in deadly disease spread as the organism rebels against such behavior, and were it actually to become the norm in the population would result in the end of mankind. BTW, she presented the above to her class in refutation of the premise of homosexuality being normal. I believe in commonsense and truth. I do not hate anyone because of traits they are born with or otherwise cannot help. But I do not want kids to be lied to and indoctrinated in order to make formerly marginalized groups to feel better about themselves and in the extreme, be given undeserved positions and promotions.
DEI isn’t cruel enough for the three Tooker appointees on TEAM. If it were more hate-based and backward-looking, it might stand a chance. But common decency isn’t in vogue. The Three White Knights voted the way the playbook told them to.
When you think about it, it seems to me that provisions of the Town Charter that limit the number of Democrats on the BOE (and other elected Boards) are effectively DEI set-asides for the GOP.