HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-10-08-LHRC-min.pdf
Town of Lexington Human Rights Committee
Meeting Minutes for Wednesday, October 08, 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)
Liaisons in attendance - Mark Sandeen, Select Board (MS); Colleen Dunbar, Lexington Police (CD); Dana
Bickelman, Director of Human Services (DB); Juanica Buchanan, Human Services Outreach Coordinator
(JB); Andrea So, Lexington Public School District liaison; Eileen Jay, School Committee liaison (EJ); Sarah
Carter, School Committee liaison (SC)
Guest: Taylor Galusha, Town of Lexington, Communications Director (TG)
The minutes recorded by Christina Lin
1. Meeting called to order at 8:03am
2. Minutes for approval: June 25, 2025 and Sept 18, 2025.
Motioned by SH and seconded by JZ and approved by unanimous vote.
3. Working group logistics
Committee members discussed working group logistics in response to the Boards and
Committees boot camp a few days prior on Oct 4, 2025. There were questions working
groups and if they conflicted with Open Meeting Law.
a. CD will put together an information session on understanding hate crime vs
incidents aiming to present in the latter part of January.
b. RL gave update on work from the Immigration Working Group. The Select
Board approved reaffirming the 2018 Resolution for a Safe, welcoming and
inclusive community. They are working on plans to share out Know Your Rights
immigration rights information across town.
c. MLK Day of Service group (not part of LHRC) is working on expanding MLK
Day celebrations to start the week before MLK Day. There are many ideas being
evaluated.
d. JZ to contact Penny Tsounis at Human Services to discuss housing and
understanding issues around housing security in Lexington.
e. Efforts on supporting civil dialogue. Committee members shared a general
agreement that programming on civil dialogue skills should start with safer
topics and avoid polarizing issues to support learning. Another committee
member suggested exploration around addressing toxic rhetoric which they
believed is concentrated on social media and email list platforms rather than in
person conversations. For example, the comments section following an article
1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420
or a social media posts were places that appear especially vulnerable to
attracting divisive language.
4. Introductions: Taylor Galusha, Director of Communications; works with Julia Flood. The work
of the communications department encompasses digital communication, press releases, help
promote different resources, and events. TG shared that not everyone has access to social
media which was why they felt print publication is still valuable. The Chair shared that the
Immigration Working Group is interested in working/helping TG with communication around
the SB reaffirmation of the 2018 resolution.
5. Committee and Liaison Updates
a. DB - starting interviews for asst. Human Resources- Internal Chief Equity Officer role.
b. Neighboring HRC updates on cross community conversation project: Meeting to hear
from Essential Partners on Oct 16th
c. Log in your LHRC volunteer hours at the Lex250 page
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJ1NHf-kIeWScfhCiVC9-YByOcCL7gTG
92dcRTAZHejkRipA/viewform
d. A reminder that Jewish Holidays start the night before. Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur - Jewish Holidays always start the night before. Please help share this
knowledge. In Muslim tradition - a lot of celebrations and observances also start the
evening before as well.
6. Unexpected Items Not Reasonably Anticipated in Advance
a. NEEDED - Diwali greeting from LHRC for IAL event Nov 9th, 4-8PM @ Cary Hall
b. Any other topics for next meeting
7. Public Comments for Items Not on the Agenda
a. Sunflower project, Kate DeAngelis - come to future daytime LHRC meeting.
b. Rachel motioned to adjourn, Hafsah seconded, meeting adjourned at 10:34am.
1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420