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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-06-25-LHRC-min Town of Lexington,Human Rights Committee Meeting Thursday,June 25,2020 Virtual Public Meeting 9:31-11:17 Present Committee Members: Monami D. Roy (Chair), Tanya Gisolfi (Vice Chair), Georgia Swann (Clerk), James Barry (Police Department), Fuang Ying Huang, Melissa Interess (Town Manager's Office Member/Human Services Department), Scott Bokun (School Department Member), Cleveland Coats Liaisons and Guests: Scott Bokun (School Committee Liaison), Jill Hai (Board of Selectmen Liaison), Valerie Overton (LexPride Liaison), Aidan Evelyn (Police Department Liaison), Christina Lin (PPC Liaison), Jodi Finnegan (Guest), Carissa Black(Guest), Colette Powell (Guest), Debbie Armstrong (Guest), Deborah Strod (Guest), Glenn Parker (Guest), Barry Orenstein (Guest), Katie O'Hare Gibson (Guest), Kristen Arena (Guest), Marcia Butman (Guest), Miranda Clarke (Guest), Nancy Brodsky (Guest), Reginald Murphy (Guest), Giulia Sorcini (Guest), Catherine Reilly (Guest). I. Welcome Statement on activity in town and the desire of Lexington residents to talk about racism and systemic inequities. "If we want to understand even a little,the experience of our neighbors and some of our children it requires us to focus on what it is they are actually communicating." Tanya Gisolfi,Vice Chair. The committee cannot fix racism but with the help of the community we can support making Lexington a better place to live through support, suggestions and anti-racist programming. 2. Issues surrounding Race: Possible Next Steps • Support of potential Board of Health work on Racism as a Public Health Issue • MDR: Disparity exists in Lexington in health outcomes by race, for example Black residents were overrepresented in COVID cases in town (6% of cases vs the 1-1.5% of residents). Board of Health is looking into declaring Racism a Public Health Crisis • MI: Has spoken to BOH about bringing together other stake holders like Human Services who would be interested in working on the issue. • Public comment from Deborah Strod: Has been leading effort on working with the BOH. Began by asking SB and BOH to declare racism a public health issue. The effort begins with asking the question and getting the data on how residents are affected by systemic racism. The desire is to learn about different ways that systemic racism affects health outcomes and related to COVID exposure 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE•LEXINGTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02420 • Recommendations to SB • MI: comment on Diversity Officer and Task Force description formatting. • 7B: Question on training being required for elected town officials. • MDR: Recommendations are suggestions so SB will work on legality and other issues. • FYH: Suggestion to make completion of anti-bias training public record. • CC: Question on role and empowerment of Diversity Officer. • MI: Suggestion to include Town Manager in Diversity Officer Recommendation— added in language • TG: LHRC can only make recommendations but have no role in implementation. • Discussion on Recommendations and minor changes in language. • Motion to adopt with changes made by MI and seconded by TG. All in favor. None opposed. • MDR noted this would be posted on the LHRC website • Recommendations to SC moved to after discussion of Dr. H presentation • Community Outreach 3. Issues surrounding LPD • MDR: 7B is LPD Civil Rights Officer and shares reports with LHRC leadership. • LHRC welcomes and encourages concerns and complaints but as of yet has not received any. • GS: Reporting of issues made on social media need to be directed to official channels so that actions can be taken. • FYH: Has questions about clarifying how complaints are investigated and addressed. Complaints don't always require punishment, but members of the community want to start a dialogue. • MDR: LHRC urges people to contact the committee with concerns because LHRC has to know in order to act. • TG: Wants to listen and support community in case of issues and will work on helping in whatever way is appropriate including contacting agencies outside of Lexington, Mass Commission Against Discrimination. • MDR: Explanation of reporting and recording of complaints to LHRC with the understanding that information shared should be respectful of confidentiality and not cause more harm. • Chief Corr: Internal affairs policy is online. There is a way to make an informal complaint and LPD reserve the right to further investigate if the complaint is deemed to be serious. Officials are limited in what can be spoken on in a public forum. Comments on Strong Chief statue vs Weak Chief statute. In Lexington Town manager is responsible for hiring, discipline and review. Reports can be made to Town Manager, mechanisms for reporting are admittedly dated but they are working on improvements. 4. Discussion of Next Steps post LPS Presentation on Civil Rights— 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE•LEXINGTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02420 • Bullying • GS: Understands there is a legal definition that LPS has to work with, however believes the issue isn't understood by parents because I've heard a lot of personal stories that seem to me to meet the definition as its officially written. Concerned about black students in particular in light of the recent report about the black student experience at LHS. If students are expressing issues LPS needs to take it seriously and gather their own data, especially since they have access to a larger pool of students. • Suspension • MDR: LHRC has the stated goal to be supportive and work within the limitation of a body that does not have that much power. LHRC has worked to try and get a survey of disparities in discipline but buy in is needed from officials to make things happen. • Hiring • CC: Issues persist in representation of minorities in town staff and how Diversity Officer could be effective in addressing the issue. • MDR: There are questions about recruiting and retaining minority staff that need to be examined. There are no principals of color currently • SB: Diversity Officer Johnny Cole is aware of the issue and working on it • TG: Newton North Principal is former LPS employee. • FYH: Issue has been going on for 20 years, Lexington budget approval timing negatively impacts LPS's ability to hire the best candidates. Leadership has to have the will to make the changes. • LGBTQ Data • MDR: Shifting to YRBS data, it is important that LGBTQ students feel supported in their environment or else they are not being given the appropriate opportunity to access education. • GS: Demographic break down is missing SPED students as a population. Wants to see the responses for SPED students and also the responses by racial/ethnic group, believes that these populations have taken the hardest hit from the COVID shutdown • SB: Will check on getting access to YRBS data for SPED and racial minorities. • MDR: Mental health for these marginalized populations needs to be prioritized. Library and Human Services are great models for diversity of staff and delivery of services to the public. • TG: Is thankful to Human Services for making Sharon Gunda available to the public during this time. • Discussion on motions to LPS. • Recommendations to the School Committee • MI: Recommends changing language to require initial anti bias training and biennial training thereafter. • JB: Clarification on biannual vs biennial. 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE•LEXINGTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02420 • MDR: Anti-bias training should be provided by an independent organization, not by town or town residents. • SB: Regarding email from TG to Dr. Hackett, was impressed and looks forward to working on the issue as a team. Will abstain from vote as member of School Committee. • Motion on Recommendations to Lexington Public Schools: Made by GS. Seconded by MI. All in favor. SB abstained. • Reginald Murphy: There is a need to get information to people about how to bring up issues. Need a streamlined reporting mechanism. Feels like racism isn't treated as seriously as sexual harassment. Racism involves power dynamics that the town wants to address but doesn't feel it's taken seriously in a way that leads to action. Suggestion is to create a body of citizen enforcement that is flexible and can act rapidly to make people feel safe in town. 5. The Need to Report Incidents or Concerns to LHRC (TG) • MDR: Understands difficulties of reporting concerns to officials and again encourages reporting to LHRC or directly to Chair or any member of LHRC. 6. Scope of LHRC work and next steps (MDR) • Focus must be on what LHRC needs to do to be effective. 7. Committee Members Reports and Liaison Updates • First Virtual Race Amity Day, the book list is available on the website, there were fun games and about 45 attendees, the library was great. • MDR: Thanks to Valerie Overton and Jodi Finnagan. • SB: Was happy to participate in a fun and joyful event. 8. Race Amity Day Report Out(Gisolfi, Huang) and next steps— • The program was very successful even though it was done on Zoom. • The trivia contest was particularly popular despite the awkward format on Zoom as many people appreciate learning about the contributions of other cultures to our country. • In the future, we plan to work with the Historical Society to gather pictures all year round. • Also, will work more closely with Town Celebrations. Hopefully by next year we will have in person programming. 9. LexPride Car Parade Report Out(Roy) and next steps— • MDR: Car Parade worked really well and was a lot of fun, LHRC was an enthusiastic co-sponsor. 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE•LEXINGTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02420 • We look forward to a continued partnership with LexPride but regardless, as an LHRC, we can promote Pride month and encourage our residents to engage in learning more about this community. • Would like to consider Pride as a month-long event next year to explore more issues in detail along with the support of LexPride. 10. No Hate November Working Group • MDR: looking forward to smaller subgroups and considering the continued impact of COVID on delivery of programs. Would like a family friendly option. Race, disability, gender and sexuality are potential broad topics. 11. Chair Report 12. Administrative issues • Meeting in August will include elections, please give FYH and JB notice if you want to run for a position. 13. Confirm Next Meeting Date and Time LIST OF DOCUMENTS LHRC Chair Report Respectfully submitted, Georgia Swann Clerk, LHRC 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE•LEXINGTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02420