Acton Leaders are Quick to Accuse, Slow to Apologize

Response to Hate Incident and Acton Police Investigation Shows Bias

By Scott Smyers and Charlie Kadlec

Immediately after the December 17, 2020 hateful, racist and vulgar “Zoom bomb” incident the AB administrators, the chair of the AB School Committee, one Selectmen, and the Executive Director of the A-B United Way made public comments and released statements claiming that the incident is proof that Acton and Boxborough are racist communities, and that racism is the reason for the Save Our Colonial movement.

Last week the Acton Police reported that the suspect for this and the following two incidents has been identified as a juvenile male who lives in Arizona and has no connection to Acton or Boxborough. This information effectively invalidated the leaders’ accusations. So far, none of the above-mentioned leaders have apologized for their insulting assumptions about the character of the communities which put them in their leadership positions.

Background

As outlined in our recent article, two ABRSD School Committee (SC) “Virtual Zoom” meetings were interrupted by racist and insulting messages sent by an anonymous coward using features of the Zoom software intended to allow public participation in the meetings. These incidents were given top priority and the Selectmen directed Acton Police to investigate and identify the perpetrator.

Acton Police Investigation

The police released the results of their investigation on Wednesday January 13, 2021 (Bold added to text).

Acton Police have identified a juvenile male in Arizona as a suspect. Acton Police are working with a local Arizona police department to continue the investigation.

The suspect allegedly also attempted to interrupt an Acton Board of Selectmen’s meeting Monday, Jan. 11, but was prevented from doing so by town staff who were able to identify the suspicious behavior and stop multiple attempts by the suspect to be disruptive.

Acton Police have determined that the individual has no apparent connection to Acton or Boxborough, and is believed to have learned about the scheduled meetings online.

Accusations

As pointed out by many residents, each of the incidents were very “juvenile” in their immaturity and lack of sophistication especially the most recent incident at the Board of Selectmen meeting on January 11. We expect the leaders of our Schools to have some concept of how to identify and implement remedies to curb inappropriate juvenile behavior, but instead of considering all possible scenarios including the perpetrator being someone with no connection to our communities as has been happening all over the world since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the most outspoken leaders of the SC and Administration irresponsibly blamed the incidents on the concerned citizen movement critical of the SC vote to cancel the Colonial mascot. Despite their lack of critical thinking, on at least five occasions, during public meetings or in written statements they blamed individuals from our community for the racist insults.

The school Superintendent and 21 top members of the school administration issued a statement (and a video version) condemning the incident AND accusing individuals from our communities of being directly or indirectly responsible. See the excerpt below and complete statement at this link:

What we experienced was an affirmation of privileged and narrow thinking from a member of a group so focused on getting what it wants that it is willing to create an environment that normalizes these actions and reactions. Sadly, this is only one example of what is an endemic pattern of racism in our community.

For those who asserted that racism doesn’t exist in Acton and Boxborough, we all hope that once and for all we can put an end to this irresponsible and false argument. This is one highly visible incident, but it is not isolated. We have heard for years members of our community telling us that our schools and community are not safe places for people of color, those of different faiths, from different places and with different beliefs.

School Committee 12-17-2020 meeting minutes

Page 3, meeting minutes approved by the School Committee:

It was noted that this was a very clear example that racism does exist in our community

Our response

We have had many discussions with people who are interested in revisiting the SC decision to abandon the Colonial and no one has ever claimed that racism does not exist in our communities. Racism has been around for hundreds of thousands of years and will always exist. However, we are aware of no laws or policies within our community that are racists (except for hiring policies that promote certain demographics). Individuals can certainly be racists but a Town or Community cannot be racist as a collective unit. The statement above is another logical fallacy, a Straw Man argument where the authors (Peter Light and 21 administrators) twists previous statements so that they have a new meaning, then they deconstruct the new meaning that was not intended by the original authors. It is simply not based on the truth.

A particularly offensive assertion in the school administrators’ statement is:

racism is a major problem within our community

their statement is evidence for the opposite:

accusing people of racism is a major problem within our community

Comments by the Chair of the AB School Committee, Tessa McKinley

The same day, the Chair of the SC issued a separate statement.

Again, with no evidence, the Chair did not hesitate to directly link the incident to the local community.

Last night’s words are just the most recent and visible example of the undercurrent of racism that runs through our towns. It was disgusting, hateful and embarrassing.

The Board of Selectmen, Selectman David Martin

On December 18, 2020, the Board of Selectmen had an Emergency Special Meeting to respond to the incident. The link is below where you can watch the statements starting at 3:30.

Referencing the incident, Selectmen David Martin said,

These individuals have been egged on by the anti-school committee, mostly by white men trying to reinstate the mascot.

When asked to revisit his statements after the Police investigation proved the racist comments/insults did NOT originate from in our Communities and to consider apologizing, Mr. Martin replied,

Thank you for contacting me, but all my statements were true and correct and I fully stand behind them.

More background

On January 7, 2021, the SC met again and at approximately one hour and forty minutes into the meeting, someone called in with a muffled connection claiming to be “John” from “unintelligible number Picnic Street, Boxborough” and played music with lyrics featuring the N-word. The exchange lasted less than a minute and is in the 1:39 section of the recording. The Committee appropriately marginalized the incident and moved on with business.

Watch the video yourself here,

Again, the reaction by the school administration and the Selectmen was immediate and strong. The Superintendent released a statement condemning the action, but this time did not link the incident directly to the Community.

The A-B United Way, Executive Director Griet Dehandschutter

The A-B United Way issued a statement, which starts with a paragraph linking the racists incidents to the local community. The entire statement is at this link.

We like to believe and we tell ourselves stories that we are a welcoming community for newcomers. We like to believe and we tell ourselves stories that we are a caring community for our long-term residents. We desperately and fiercely want to believe the stories that we tell ourselves about our community. But clearly, we have a problem.

Acton Leadership Group (ALG)*

Following the Police announcement that the perpetrator was from Arizona and did not have any connection to Acton or Boxborough the ALG met and, in an unprecedented action, sent the following message to Superintendent Peter Light:

*Correction Acton Forum has been notified by Jon Benson that the request to Peter Light at the 1-14-2021 ALG meeting was correctly quoted by Acton Forum but that the request was NOT made by the ALG, it was made personally by Jon, not as a Selectmen but as an individual.  Acton Forum apologizes for the error.

Peter, today or tomorrow at the latest and ahead of the Martin Luther Day Observance, it is incumbent on you as our Superintendent of Schools to inform the faculty, staff and students at the high school and junior high school of Chief Burrows’ report of the Acton Police Department’s investigation of the December 17 and January 7 Hate Incidents. Specifically, that the suspect of the Zoom bombings has been identified as a juvenile male living in Arizona and has no apparent connection to the Acton-Boxborough community.

In addition, Peter, to the faculty, staff, students, their families and the wider community you must rectify the rush to judgment and the impact it has had on those members of the community falsely linked to the Zoom bombing and start our community on a path of healing.

In response to this request, Mr. Light issued a statement acknowledging the results of the police investigation but did not make any attempt to rectify the rush to judgment and the impact it has had on those members of the community falsely linked to the Zoom bombing. The letter is pasted below, but not been posted on the official website but was sent out as an email and is pasted below. There is no attempt to rectify the rush to judgment. This is NOT an apology:

AB Community,

I am writing to share a positive development regarding the investigation into the racist attacks at our school committee meetings in December and January. Last night, the Acton Police released a statement that indicated they have identified a juvenile male from Arizona as a primary suspect. They further indicated that there was no apparent connection between the juvenile male and Acton or Boxborough. This is welcome news and we are relieved that the attack did not originate from within our community. I would personally like to thank Chief Burrows, Deputy Chief Cogan, and Detective Tyler Russell for making this investigation a priority.

This resolution provides us an opportunity to reflect on not only the incidents, but our responses to the incidents. We learned that attacks like these take a tremendous personal and emotional toll on their targets, in this case volunteers elected to serve our community and children. We also learned that members of our schools and community have experienced racism, hate and other forms of bias that have not been as visible as were these incidents. Most importantly, we learned that our responses, or lack of response, can be either uplifting and empowering, or equally damaging to those individuals and to our broader community. Sometimes, in an effort to affirm our own experiences, we can inadvertently minimize the impact of this type of violence on those who are targeted. Though this attack originated from outside of our community, it happened to our community and to the people who live in it.

I think there is a certain justice that the investigation into this incident reaches this milestone as we head into the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. This important holiday provides us an opportunity to reflect on the idea that we construct our views of the world through the accumulation of our personal experiences over time. Sometimes, this can lead us to diminish or dismiss the experiences of others. However, with work, we can also learn to elevate and honor the experiences of our neighbors.

Regardless of individual differences or beliefs, I believe we will strengthen our community and our relationships with each other through a recognition of our own perspectives amplified by increased awareness of, appreciation for, and empathy toward the experiences of others. As a broader community of Acton-Boxborough, we exist as a shared collection of experiences, and only when we make the time and space to learn about each other will we come together as a one community.

With Hope,

Peter Light

Superintendent of Schools

Conclusion

We wholeheartedly agree that racist statements or actions have no place in Acton or Boxborough, but we reject the implications, and in some cases accusations, that these incidents prove that there is “endemic racism” in Acton and Boxborough. The accusers ignore the simple fact that the perpetrator of these incidents has no connection with our communities and that his motives are now known (boredom and immature entertainment). Acton Police Chief Burrows has confirmed that the juvenile is the suspect in all 3 incidents.

We expect more from our leaders. It is significant that except for the Superintendent not one of the 21 top ABRSD administrators who signed the 12-18-2020 statement acknowledged that it was a mistake. They need to set an example for the next generations and not be bullied into a rush to judgment without evidence. We hear so much about the importance of critical thinking being taught to our students, but the analysis by the SC and Administrators has not applied simple critical thinking skills at all.

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To borrow from Superintendent Light, we say “Enough” of the preoccupation with skin color.

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