ATHOL — A parent’s complaint about a class he described as “political indoctrination” has led the Athol-Royalston Regional School Committee to take a look at its policy for allowing a public comment period near the start of its monthly meeting.
Joshua LaMarche Wednesday night cited his concerns over the World Cultures class. His daughter, an 11-year-old in 6th grade, is a student in the class taught by Rosa Torres.
Reading from a prepared statement, La Marche said, “We were recently faced with evidence that our children are not receiving an education, but rather indoctrination through what we understand to be an unapproved curriculum entitled ‘World Cultures,’ which was created and approved by Supt. (Darcy) Fernandes and administered by Ms. Torres.”
After receiving a copy of the course curriculum, LaMarche continued, “We find that the content is inappropriate, politically charged, and bordering on hate speech and racism. Furthermore, the content in the classroom is not consistent with the reference text book but rather with the mantras of activist groups like Black Lives Matter and Women’s March. The topics being discussed are either non-existent issues in our community or are inappropriate.”
“Ms. Torres’ method is based solely on her personal opinion, emotion, and political stance,” La Marche claimed. “The topics are being taught with extreme bias…and serve no educational purpose but to push an agenda.”
LaMarche said students were shown images inappropriate for their age while discussing the murder of Emmett Till – a black Mississippi teen lynched in 1955 for allegedly offending a white woman.
“Another student reported to their parents,” he said, “that the class was led by Ms. Torres in a chant; ‘Dump Trump,’ and there have been reports of Ms. Torres using profanity.”
LaMarche also blasted Supt. Fernandes for her investigation into the use of racial slurs by students and accused the superintendent of conducting herself in a “secretive and biased” fashion.”
The parent made several other claims of misconduct or unprofessional behavior by Fernandes and Torres.
During time set aside for school committee comments, committee member Lee Chauvette said, “I did speak with the superintendent earlier about similar concerns. I think we really have to get to the bottom of what’s going on in that particular class.”
“I have concerns about the public input section of our meetings and what occurred tonight,” committee member Charles Pretti responded. “What occurred tonight was a parent who was so frustrated and so angry that he slandered people in public positions. He said things that should not have been said, and we should not be providing a public forum for people who are venting and accusing people in the public realm without some kind of evidence. Has that person gone to the principal? Has that person gone to the teacher? There’s a process for everything.”
“Frankly, I’m not going to sit through that again in the future,” Pretti continued. “I don’t think we should be hearing those kinds of words about our employees without validation. This not a forum in which we should allow people to tear people down who are public employees. I think we need to create guidelines for this.”
“I’m not saying the man was wrong. However, what was wrong is he basically took a machine gun to these people without their ability to defend themselves.”
School district attorney Fred Dupere said recent court rulings have upheld the right of citizens to make such comments in public.
Under current school committee policy, citizens can comment on any issue they wish but, if the topic is not included on the committee’s meeting agenda, committee members cannot discuss the issue.
“There’s a process to followed,” Pretti emphasized. “I had no awareness of any problem – if there is one – in this particular classroom. We shouldn’t be learning about it in this kind of a forum. If we have a personnel issue, generally it’s discussed in executive session.”
To answer a question from committee Chairman Deb Kuzmeskas, Dupere said the committee is not required to set aside any time at its meetings for public comment.
The attorney said he would report back to the committee at its next meeting on what options it may want to consider when it comes to allowing public comment.