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Lexington Human Rights Committee
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Sean D. Osborne, Chair hoer anrightscinte L01exinltonrna.gov
Fuang-Ying Huang, Vice Chair
Tanya Gisolfi, Clerk
Minutes for April 6, 2018 Meeting
Present:
• Members: Sean Osborne, Fuang-Ying Huang, Tanya Gisolfi, Jeffrey Toronto, Lieutenant James
Barry, Charlotte Rodgers
• Liaisons: Kathleen Lenihan, (School Committee), Pastor Brent Maracle (LICA Liaison)
Stanley Yap (CAAL), Valerie Overton (LexPride), Mona Roy(SEPAC/LEXDESI)
• Guests: Mark Corr(Chief of Polic), Mabel Amar
Meeting called to order at 8:07 AM, Quorum was present at 8:07 AM.
Minutes from March 2, 2017 meeting were reviewed with no changes. Whereupon the motion was
made by Mrs. Rodgers, the motion was seconded: Resolved: to approve the minutes for the March
2, 2017 meeting with amendments.
Chair Report—More Fair Housing training will be offered soon, as the LHRC is the default committee
for investigating housing discrimination claims. Intentionally, no one from the LHRC was made a
member of the Lexington Diversity Task Force, in order to spread the volunteer opportunities to the
entire community.
Chief Corr Police Update -Update on Hate Crimes Investigations: Anti-Black Email and Anti-Semitic
Graffiti— Chief Corr explained that an anti-black hate email was sent over the summer to the incoming
LHS Principal Stevens at his then work place in Duxbury, MA. An investigation determined that the
offensive email was sent from Lexington and was in-fact traced back to the LHS math department.
While police were able trace the email origin to the math department, the actual sender could not be
identified. The recent bomb threat at LHS was also sent from the LHS system, however, due to good
detective work in large-part by Officer Hankins, the individual responsible was arrested. A discussing
was had about the need for uniformity in disseminating information about hate crime or hate speech to
the community. Complaints have come from community members regarding the fact that some hate
acts have been communicated while other acts have not been communicated to the community. Chief
Corr asked that ALL hate be reported through the Police Department, as is consistent with the laws of
the Commonwealth. A further statement was made during Committee discussion with the Chief that
ALL Hate Acts are an attack on All of Lexington, there is no hierarchy of groups you attack one group
you attack all Lexington. A request was made for a policy committee under the LHRC to set protocol
for how information is communicated to the entire community.
1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE•LEXINGTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02420
Working Groups Reports—
a) "Not In Our Town"—Nothing to report.
b) Conversation on Race Toolkit—Group has meet multiple times, have reviewed the existing tool
kit and begun work to fill in the holes and expand the curriculum.
c) Human Rights Complaint/Incident Response—Have not met yet. Mr. Toronto will send out
email to working group.
d) Patriots Day Parade and Lexington Discovery Day—Lt. Barry will be present at the table on
Discovery Day, which is Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. The LHRC needs Committee
Members to sit at the table and hand-out Bookmarks answer questions and be present.
Reports and Updates on Human Rights Related Incidents and Programs from Town Departments
and Members
a) Lt. Barry made for a request that a proposal statement be prepared by the LHRC in conjunction
with the LGBTQ community to ultimately bring to the BoS as a proclamation in support of
transgender rights.
Meeting adjourned at 8: 55 AM
Next meeting: Friday, May 4, 2018 at 8:00 am.
I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the foregoing minutes are accurate and complete.
Tanya Gisolfi, Clerk
LIST OF DOCUMENTS
• Agenda
• Last Month's Minutes
1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE•LEXINGTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02420