Editor’s note: Following is a letter addressed to Westport Board of Education members, and a copy submitted for publication to the Westport Journal.
Ladies and gentlemen:
I write to express my dismay over your walkout at the latest board meeting. The way you handled the matter was wrong and inexcusable.
I understand fully that you have a policy fixing time limits for public comment and I understand the reasons behind such a policy, but surely those limits can be waived or extended to accommodate an issue as important as that sought to be addressed by the parents and masked (masked!) children who appeared at your meeting to voice their legitimate concerns over racism in the schools.
You might have done any one of a number of things short of being rude and disrespectful to our fellow citizens. For example, you might have waived or extended the time limits for public comment or, if your agenda did not permit that, you might have scheduled a special meeting devoted to the issue.
But to have turned your back on these complainants was rude, dismissive, insulting and not at all the type of behavior we should be modeling for our children. Your impatience and insistence on adherence to an arbitrary and unfairly restrictive rule only reinforces a perception of intolerance, lack of concern and resistance to criticism.
I urge you to correct matters by offering an apology for your ill-considered action and by scheduling a special meeting for public comment. If you feel there is a need to impose control over public comment, you might consider requiring those who want to be heard to sign up in advance, and if that’s not enough, to submit a summary of their remarks. But however you choose to handle the matter, you should acknowledge your error and create a forum where you relinquish control and just listen.
Lawrence Weisman, Westport
Thank you for writing this article. Comments came to a close as a child wearing a mask SCARED to show his face came to speak. The courage of this child went unseen. I was asked to speak from a child to scared to come forward. This one child was not the only one in a mask! These children are scared and to see officials walk out a place where they wanted to be safe has now caused more harm. Kevin I thank you for staying and also making eye contact as families spoke. Not sipping water or writing on a paper. The children noticed you. They seen who cared.
I agree with Larry. An apology would not however be sufficient. Westporters need to be heard on this matter and corrective action needs to be taken to ensure that this happens.
The Board of Ed needs to be fully enlightened and if members do not have the patience to listen to the problems they have been elected to address they should not run for office in the first place. And if once they realize the position is too demanding, resignation is always an option.
This behavior was appalling.
Is appalling.
I wonder who gives these elected officials the balls to think they can carry on like this. In this manner.
Earthquake today- the least of our problems.
WTH is going on in Westport ?
There are some nefarious accustaions. That is what is going on.
I hope anyone commenting has been to or watched all the recent BoE meetings in recent years. It’s extremely inflammatory to suggest that the board had a tantrum and walked out while parents and kids were trying to be heard. I am in constant awe that our fellow parents will even do this job for us with the amount of crap that is thrown at them – repeatedly – on every topic. The BoE has held open sessions with the community – a few in the last year that are open to anyone. There was a an antisemitism and racial bias forum last month. In February they allowed Dr. Felder to go over the allotted time when making her very powerful statement. Since that meeting almost every meeting has had parents with concerns about racial incidents. Incidents which the BoE can not address and may not even be briefed on. It’s not accurate to say they are not allowing time and listening. But there are limits.
We may feel like this is so important we should allow it to go over but what about other topics/parents we might not agree with. The last few years we had a number of other parents beside Camilo Riano talking endlessly about how DEI is anti-white and the school board was facist and pedophiles and whatever else. There were quite a few of them. I don’t think too many of us would have wanted the Board to allow them more than the 2 mins/15 mins?
In recent months the board has discussed the actions being taken on the new disciplinary code of conduct Perhaps for those wanting an open forum and to allow more voices to be heard, someone should arrange a forum like the one recently at the Temple. The BoE meetings are business meetings that are open to the public. They are not a free for all. As Dr Felder said in her board comments in Feb, this isn’t a you need to fix this issue, its a WE
Well said Lauren!
Westport Schools have been under attack for a while now, and it is very concerning to me.
We had attacks on the BOE and Tom about : the nasks, the book banners, the pedophile accusers, anti- American accusers, anti DEI , anti LGBTQ, and now we are billed as a racist and anti- semitic district due to some bad kids ( dare I say “bad”?!) and the bad parenting they experienced growing up.
These incidents and/ or accustations of racism and anti semitism are awful and obviously should be addressed and not tolerated. That is basic to any school district.
I do not understand why the school district, the BOE, and Tom are being blamed, no downright attacked personally, for the remarks of a few ( minority of this district) who have parents who are to blame for bad parenting. From what I have learned, the district and Tom do NOT tolerate racism and bigotry of ANY kind! None! Zilch! Are people not paying attention to our schools’ policies?
I hope that people attend more Board of Ed meetings to understand how they work and how this district is being accused of being racist and biased. The whole district is being accused of being racist and biased. Pay attention. Do your due diligence. One one hand it is being accused of being racist, on the other, anti- American! Two very big extremes.
I talk to my children nightly about these board meetings and accustaions. They say racism is 100% not tolerated amd would be addressed immediately by the teacher and administrators ar Bedford and Staples. My children have never heard other children speak this way.This is NOT to say these incidents did not occur. I am simply addressing the massive overgeneralizations.
It is indeed disgusting if any child has said or done these awful things.i personally blame bad parenting and indeed there are bad seed and negligent parents out there. Please do not paint a large brushstroke of Westport Schools being racist or tolerant of racism. That is a false accusation and should not be tolerated.
Attend the meetings people. Learn what is going on. Do your due diligence. Talk to your children. Learn the code of conduct of Westport Schools. Learn about DEIB. Learn about the anti semitism and anti bias meetings. Learn about the accustaions/ all of them.
The more you know! This is your district you pay taxes for!
Lauren, I would love to meet with you sometime! We have a lot to discuss.
Please find my contact info through the district.
I am so sorry for the disrespect and abuse that our fellow students and their families have experienced in our schools. They deserve to be heard, embraced and supported by our community. I was not at the last board meeting, but I believe that these families and the Board can and should work together. If we can set aside any hurt from Thursday’s meeting, the speakers will find that Board Chair Lee Goldstein has been a stalwart for the rights and dignity of all students in her time on the Board, particularly in her support and pursuit of an equity study and the resulting work, as well as her handling of attempted book bannings. For this work, she has been subjected to considerable criticism and personal attacks, often during public comment on non-agenda items at the beginning of regular meetings. She, a Jewish person, has been called an anti-semite for her support of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging initiatives. She, along with our educators, has been called a pedophile for defending our libraries and their ability to offer books with LGBTQ subject matter. Full disclosure, I served as the campaign manager for Lee and Neil Phillips. I wanted them in these positions enough to devote a lot of time to making it happen. They won with overwhelming support. But I do wonder if we can continue to expect people of compassion and quality to serve if we are so quick to condemn them and their intentions.
Exactly, Becky, exactly. 150% exactly.
Some are accusing Tom and Lee of these awful things such as not caring about racism. I am horrified. There are a lot of nefarious things going on that I am very concerned about. We need to get to the bottom of a lot of things that are taking place at the board of ed meetings from all perspectives.
One last comment:
The schools should take some of these parents on tours of our school libraries to see id they offer diverse books with diverse populations. Better yet. The accusing parents should volunteer in the libraries and see for themselves if teachers do indeed have access to books filled with diverse poulations and characters.
The fact that someone accused out school of not offering diverse books is laughable.
I am standing up for the teachers and Tom now. They deserve a defense against false accustations in a public forum.
https://www.nancyonnorwalk.com/penn-williams-sues-nps-shelton-woman-sues-norwalk-hospitall/
So Penn has a history of false accusations and disruptive behavior. How is she allowed to speak at Westport BOE meetings as a non- resident?
Please do your research on this woman and her legal woes.
https://www.norwalkbranchnaacp.org/