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Home My WebLink About2025-09-10-LHRC-min.pdf Town of Lexington Human Rights Committee Meeting Minutes for Wednesday, September 10, 2025 LHRC MEMBERS PRESENT Christina Lin, Chair (CL); Stephanie Hsu, Vice-Chair (SH); Stephanie Ryan (SR); Rachel Levy (RL); Judy Zola (JZ); Hafsah Syed (HS); Mamata Banerjee (MB) Liaisons in attendance - Colleen Dunbar, Lexington Police (CD); Dana Bickelman, Director of Human Services (DB); Juanica Buchanan, Human Services Outreach Coordinator (JB); Andrea So, Lexington Public Schools, Director of Elementary Curriculum (AS), Eileen Jay (EJ), School Committee Guest: Immigration Working Group members - Todd Burger, Judith Glixon, Rev. Reebee Girash The minutes recorded by Christina Lin 1. Meeting called to order at 8:35am 2. Chair updates from the Summer a. Summary of incidents - Chair updated committee on three incidents. 2 were hate related incidents and 1 involved housing discrimination. b. Neighboring Human Rights organizations – A number of neighboring community Human Rights organizations organically came together with interest in exploring joint or coordinated programming around building community capacity for dialogue and connection and practicing dignity. The committee was interested in the possibility of participating alongside other towns. Some suggested considerations were: i. If the program were topical, that some issues were more community specific (for example housing in an urban community vs a suburban community). Therefore, if the joint program were across towns, this might make the conversation harder to bridge across communities. ii. Majority of committee members expressed caution around choosing a contentious topic and leaned towards starting with a lighter topic first. iii. Most liked the idea of creating an event that equipped participants with a skill, created opportunities for connection and intentionally seeked to reach out to community members who are not necessarily as engaged or connected. Bringing in fresh voices and expanding access to a community program were valued. iv. JZ, SR and HS expressed interest in attending the next meeting and contributing to this inter-community effort. 3. Immigration Working Group (T.Burger and J.Glixon) Two presentations were made and the presentation documents are attached a. The first presentation covered three programs that the working group are interested in developing and wanted to share this with the committee to get feedback and gauge support/interest. JG began with a briefly update on the June 25th event at Temple Isaiah around Community Safety and Immigration Rights. This event led to interest in providing Know Your Rights (KYR) resources around immigration rights and Family Emergency 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420 Planning information specifically for those who’s legal protections for remaining in the US are more tenuous under the current administration. A second KYR resource event would target immigrant community members in Lexington who had greater visa protections such as green card holders. And the third event would target immigration rights allies who are interested in learning bystander skills in protecting the immigrant community. Committee members appreciated the working groups’ plans. b. The second presentation was a recommendation by the Immigration Working Group to ask the Select Board to reaffirm the 2018 Safe and Welcoming Community Resolution. TB covered the history of the passage of the resolution in 2018 and shared that not all aspects of the resolution have been implemented and that most community members were unaware of this existing resolution. There was a suggestion to plan a communication strategy when asking for SB approval to reaffirm the resolution. The request was to address a gap in community knowledge in the wake of new or updated policies. The commenter shared that since a large portion of the community are unaware of the steps the police department have already taken in following the 2018 resolution, a reaffirmation should ensure this gap in knowledge would not continue. Additionally, an example of community interests with unintended consequences was shared where leaf blower enforcement also increases concerns for landscape workers as police officers are frequently asked to drive out to speak with homeowners. A question was asked if other towns had similar policies and TB said ~12-18 towns have existing policies similar to the resolution already in place. c. This presentation also spurred several personal stories around recent intimidating experiences with officials who appear to be border and immigration enforcement. Irrespective of immigration status, nearly all those in attendance had a story around ways they were either restructuring their lives or had encountered a negative experience around the new federal enforcement policies and activities. EJ shared that the School Committee were exploring school policy around student travel in light of current federal administration’s border enforcement practices. Some families no longer feel safe to send their children abroad while other families lament the idea that their children might not have the same opportunities to experience international travel as part of their youth education program. EJ invited committee members who were interested to follow up offline. She said there will likely be a focus group created to gauge concerns and help shape policy ideas. A member cautioned that some parents/students might not feel as comfortable to publicly share reasons for not wanting to send their children abroad. d. The motion to ask the Select Board to reaffirm the 2018 Safe and Welcoming Resolution/Safe Communities resolution was approved by unanimous vote. Letter to the Select board with the results is attached. 4. Areas of Focus for 2025/26 Season and Working Groups - Chair shared the idea of creating working groups to expand the capacity of the committee work. Suggested areas of focus are Anti-Hate/Anti-Bias, Civil Dialogue/Free Speech/CommunityConversation, Housing in addition to the existing Immigration working group. Additionally, there is interest in exploring creation of an LHRC newsletter. These areas of work are to be explored at the next LHRC meeting. The chair asked committee members to consider which topics they could help support. 5. Committee and Liaison Updates a. SR shared about an upcoming Indigenous Peoples Day celebration in collaboration with Winchester. The event will take place in Lexington on October 13, 2025 at the Lexington 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420 History Museum. Committee voted to approve use of the logo for promotional materials of the event. b. DB reminded the group about the upcoming Fall-Dismantling Racism in Our Town program and several members expressed they felt it should be a mandatory class for everyone. Dismantling Racism in Our Town - New Zoom Session starts October 8, 2025. Registration for Dismantling Racism in Our Town is now open! Dismantling Racism In Our Town is a seven-week learning journey offered by and for those who live, work, study and/or worship in Lexington or nearby towns. It is designed to strengthen our personal and collective awareness of anti-Black racism and its consequences; and to commit together to undo and repair the legacies of racism and white supremacy in ourselves and our communities. Please join us! The fall session will be meeting via Zoom on Wednesday mornings from 9:00am to 11:00am, running from October 8 through November 19. Learn more and register here for this popular, free learning & action series! Contact us at LexDismantlingRacism@gmail.com with questions. Supported by the Lexington Human Rights Committee and the Lexington Lyceum Advocates. Meeting adjourned at 10:33am 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420