HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-02-07-LHRC-min Town of Lexington, Human Rights Committee Meeting
Friday, February 7th, 2020
Lexington Community Center
8:15-9:43
Present:
Committee Members: Monami D. Roy (Chair), Tanya Gisolfi(Vice Chair), Georgia Swann
(Clerk), Fuang Ying Huang, Cleveland Coats, Melissa Interess (Town Manager's Office
Member/Human Services Department), James E. Barry Jr. (Police Department)
Liaisons and Guests: Scott Bokun (SC Liaison), Jill Hai (SB Liaison) Mark Corr (Chief of
Police), Valerie Overton(LexPride)
Meeting called to order at 8:15 AM, Quorum was present at 8:15 AM.
Approval of January Minutes
• Motion made by TG, Seconded by MI, all in favor.
Chair Report
1) Expectations of the LHRC community members
2) Updates since last meeting
a. Attended CAAL/KoLex Lunar New Year Celebration
b. Attended SC meetings
c. Attended SEPAC meeting
d. Attended Screening of Willie
e. Attended ABCL program MLK's The Purpose of Education
£ Met with KoLex co-chair
g. Met with JpLex co-chair
h. Met with BALex leadership
i. Attended TMMA info/social session
j. Attended LexPride meeting
k. Attended LexPride's program on Intersectionality(Layers of Belonging)
1. Town Celebrations MLK Day Sub-Committee
3) Work that others are doing around town/Events of Interest
a. Social Justice Bookgroup 1 st Wednesday of the month (7 PM— 8:30 PM) Cary
Library
b. ABCL -- Saturday, February 8, 10:00 AM— 12:00 Noon—The Black History
Project of Lexington, Lexington Historical Society and (ABCL) are teaming up to
document the history of the black experience in town by collecting oral histories,
photographs, documents, and artifacts will help historians build a clear and
complete picture of Lexington's multiracial history. (Ip://wwwoabclexeor
c. Lex Pride's program on Intersectionality is March 7th at 7pm. The purpose is to
educate the public about intersectionality, hear experiences and see a dramatic
presentation on intersectionality.
4. Committee Member Liaison Reports
• CC: Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club
o Attended "Willie" film produced by Lexington Resident Bryant McBride.
o Chamber of Commerce held annual Gala attended by Select Board Chair
Doug Lucente. Girl Scouts were given an award for environmentalist
activities.
• TG: LICA
o Met with Arlington Human Rights Committee to discuss
March 4 I Temple Emunah will show the film Screenagers for free to the
general public.
• MI: Council on Aging
o Council on Aging is looking at Age Friendly Needs Assessment"results and
working on an action plan based on the data collected.
• SB: Lexington Public Schools/School Committee
o Presentations on the Equity Audit and the Discipline Disparities were given
by Johnny Cole at the School Committee Meetings.
o Attended screening of the film"Willie" and would like to see a program based
on the movie for Lexington Public School students.
o Attended a discussion hosted by ABCL on the Purpose of Education
o Attended SEPAC Meeting with Dr. Hackett,no formal presentation was
given.
o Attended CAAL KoLex Lunar New Year celebration.
5. MLK Day Community Conversation (The Necessity of Discussing Race at Home)
Workgroup Update (Swann, Roy)
a. Had three expert speakers and forty trained facilitators/table reporters to capture info.
b. More time to talk at the tables
C. LexMedia link is live on the website
d. Very successful, 200+people including more than twenty teens involved.
e. Workgroup will meet at the end of February to discuss report out and feedback
received, synthesis of feedback and plan for possible next steps
Substantive report out on feedback will be given at the March meeting
• Special thanks to Colin and Leslie Masson as well as First Parish Church of
Lexington for their generous donations, as well as Melissa Interess of Human
Services who supported the work and provided a budget to support the LHRC in
finding high quality professional speakers.
• MI: Attended multigenerational Brookhaven sponsored event. Dr. Esther Hu of
Boston University was the featured speaker. Money and donations were raised for
Bedford Veterans. Teens interviewed seniors who lived during MLK's era about their
experience.
6. Race Amity Day Workgroup (Gisolfi, Coats)
• SB: Suggests possibly tying in"Wall of Wisdom" and Conversations on Race work
with Race Amity Day presentation.
• TG: The Group is looking at programing, FYH will be added to the committee and
Jodi Finnegan could be a potential community member volunteer.
• JB: Suggests maintaining awareness of the various other events happening on Race
Amity Day to avoid conflict.
• MDR: Input is welcome from Human Services and the Lexington Police Department
on the events of the day. Race Amity Day is focused more on shared humanity and
cross-cultural/racial cooperation so any tie into Conversations on Race themes will
have to be evaluated carefully. It is important to celebrate RAD in a meaningful way
because Lexington is so diverse and how fortunate we are to have a lot of cooperation
across cultures in town.
• LexPride Liaison: The LexPride Celebration will be from 11AM to 2PM on June 14th
location is not confirmed. LexPride would also appreciate LHRC support for town
wide Pride Celebrations.
• Select Board Liaison: Work with the Select Board Clerk to request a proclamation in
recognition of the day so that it can get on the agenda to be signed by the board.
7. Civil Rights Incidents Reporting (Roy, Gisolfi)
• TG: In the process of reviewing Committee bylaws and charge. It has been brought to
the LHRC's attention that bullying is not being reported to LHRC. The goal is to have
a transparent explanation of process and procedure listed on the web site.
• MDR: LHRC is not representative government like the Select Board and one goal is
to be available to assist vulnerable and marginalized groups and make sure they feel
they have support. It is important for the public to be aware of LHRC and know what
can and cannot be done by the committee. Becoming a commission would be ideal.
• Select Board Liaison: Select Board appreciates the input from the LHRC on the
suggestions that will be considered by the Select Board when drafting the charge.
8. School Discipline Disparity Workgroup Update
• MR: The presentation is available on LexMedia. Johnny Cole presented at school
committee extensively on race, also examined LGBTQ issues. African-American
students and disabled have a documented high discipline disparity and disparity has
risen. LPS is majority minority school district while 90% of faculty are white.
Concerns about the lack of collection of LGBTQ statistics remain.
• SB: Johnny Cole is visiting all of the schools, so work on getting all unified is
ongoing. Disappointed that action wasn't taken sooner, but glad to be working on the
issue now. JC reported that teachers have desire to work on the issue. Will provide
documentations for reference that will be part of minutes.
• TG: Cultural Competency training has to be ongoing and comprehensive. Would like
to see more clarity around data collection.
• LexPride Liaison: There has been little to no mention to LGBTQ students with regard
to disparities in the school system, economically disadvantaged students also seem to
be overlooked. There is disappointment with the results. Understands the issues with
data collection for a variety of reasons including confidentiality.
9. Not in Our Town/Schools Workgroup Update (Gisolfi, Swann, Coats)
• TG: Work on NIOS began years ago with a pilot at Diamond Middle School,
however recently it's been determined that Diamond will not be moving forward with
the pilot. The goal was for all the schools to have a uniform curriculum across LPS
and then a similar curriculum could be presented to the entire Lexington Community.
• MDR: Moving forward with Not In Our Town should be a priority in such a diverse
community. NIOS should have been piloted at the high school level, however it
seems that LPS wants to continue with different programs at the individual schools.
• Select Board Liaison: While No Place For Hate was active there was a separate
committee that was responsible of the program, so LHRC has the option of
recommending a committee be formed specifically to work on Not In Our Town.
Perhaps a presentation from the NIOT organization or someone from a neighboring
community with experience in the program would be helpful.
10. Understanding our Town Workgroup Update (Huang, Coats, Interess)
• MI: Will be ready to present back to the group in the next few months after looking
more at what data is available and what is needed. Some of what the workgroup was
looking for has been found, the work is moving forward.
• MDR: This sort of demographic data should be easily available, who lives in
Lexington and who works in Lexington. It should be easy for anyone to search for
this data so that even a person who is not tech savvy can find the answers to questions
on demographics.
11. Understanding of Past, Present, and Future Asian American Issues in Lexington
• MDR: Meetings with leaders of cultural groups is ongoing. Leaders of groups are
asking for clarification on the purpose of the LHRC and how we can be utilized.
More outreach is needed in the community, especially with cultural groups that do not
hold open meetings. Several new groups are being formed so it's important to keep
up with the community. Johnny Cole's Equity presentation had some insights on
Asian students (different expectations from teachers, identities are confused, feelings
of invisibility). The upcoming LHS PTO presentation of the film "I'm Not Racist...
Am I?"has some insights into this phenomenon.
12. Unexpected Items Not Reasonably Advance
• CC: Follow Up on the Film"Willie"There is a local contact that for SB to connect
with. On the issue of sponsorship, the LHRC Chair can make requests to Rotary Club
and Chamber of Commerce, contact info will be provided.
• MDR: "Willie"producer Bryant McBride was open to working with LHRC to
possibly present the film to the community, it touches on many issues that are
relevant to the LHRC's goals.
Public Comments
None
Motion to Adjourn: FYH
Seconded: MI
Meeting Adjourned 9:43
Next Meeting Date and Time March 6th at 8:15 am.
LIST OF DOCUMENTS
LHRC Chair Report