Press Pause: A Review of the Flawed Process of the Colonial Mascot Retirement

The AB School Committee has adopted the practice of allowing public comments, but ignoring any topics or direct questions they do not want to address. This is not the spirit of public meetings and disrespectful to the citizens of our community. Acton Forum encourages all citizens who offer public comments at any public meetings to share them here (actonforum.com) and use the comment feature to engage in spirited discussion and disagreement.

Comments During the School Committee Meeting on October 7, 2021

By Marty Benson

On the evening of October 15, 2020, the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee voted abruptly to retire the historic Colonial mascot while providing limited opportunity for community input. Their controversial decision was in direct violation of the District’s Facilities Naming policy. Despite significant public outcry and while still awaiting administrative determinations, the School Committee announced in September 2021 that they will begin the process of selecting a new mascot. At their meeting on October 7, 2021, I read the following statement before the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee.

First, almost a year ago, I spoke at a meeting on behalf of those advocating the retention of the Colonial mascot.  I specifically stated that the views were my own and to please direct your attacks towards me.  Instead this past winter some members of this board directed vile and repugnant Facebook attacks against members of my family.  The most abhorrent of which included Ms. Abayaah’s attacks on my one-year old niece.  This was followed by a public statement from the chair of this committee, Mr. Klein, calling my father an anti-Semite.  For the record Mr. Klein, my father is Jewish and is the grandson of refugees.

At your last meeting it was announced that this committee will commence discussion on renaming the mascot.  However, this is premature and there are a few items that the public should be made aware of.

1) As a reminder, the October 15, 2020 vote to retire the Colonial mascot was in direct violation of the District Facilities Naming Policy. That evening this policy was falsified to both the community and the School Committee by Superintendent Light.

2) The student group ABSEJ who were advocating the retirement of the Colonial mascot were given the opportunity to speak before classes, a faculty meeting, and a School Committee meeting.  Conversely, student groups supporting the Colonial were denied the same speaking opportunities.

3) Members of ABSEJ have reported that they met with Superintendent Light last year prior to the October 15, 2020 meeting. During their discussion members were told all they had to do was make a presentation and the School Committee would take care of the rest. 

4) Presently, there is an Open Meeting Law Complaint before the Attorney General’s Office regarding the School Committee’s October 15, 2020 vote.  To date a decision has yet to be rendered.

5) Presently, there are three cases before the Secretary of State’s office regarding the School Committee refusal to release public documents. The School Committee is arguing communications between members aren’t considered public records. This is contrary to both the law and the School Committee’s own policies.

6) For almost a year the School Committee has been fighting the release of these documents by wasting tax dollars on legal services.  The District’s law firm recently made headlines for withholding Boston School Committee records from both the Boston Globe and a Federal Judge.

7) Some of the records the district released showed that the School Committee and Administration sought to weaponize the Zoom bombing in an effort to maliciously silence Colonial supporters because they were angered by our records requests, public participation, and for being unsupportive of their mascot decision.

8) Lastly, following the Zoom bombing, two lawn signs with the AB United logo were placed on the Town Common, apparently by someone unaware that this location is the burial ground of Captain Isaac Davis, Abner Hosmer, and James Hayward. This is easily recognized by the 75-foot-tall tombstone. It’s rather symbolic that after canceling our town’s sacred heroes this organization then desecrated their graves with AB signage. 

This is concrete proof that the process was rushed. Supporters of the Colonial mascot will continue to advocate for the School Committee to do the right thing and start the process over again in accordance with their own naming policy.

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