SOUTHWICK — While administrators were responding to alleged incidents of racism at Southwick Regional School in February, School Committee Chair Robert Stevenson said he wanted to create a committee of community members to strengthen bonds among stakeholders in the district.
The time has come, Stevenson said on June 25.
“It would be helpful to get some outside suggestions [from the new committee] that the School Committee can put into place,” Stevenson said about forming the new committee.
It will be called Promoting Acceptance and Compassion Together and will operate as an advisory committee to the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Committee, Stevenson said.
The new committee’s focus will be on fostering collaboration, inclusivity and a shared vision around acceptance and empathy within the district and the community as a whole, he said.
He envisions the committee will include a couple of district students, teachers, and residents from the communities the school district serves. He hasn’t yet settled on the number of members he’d like to see on the committee, but he said it shouldn’t be too small or too large.
“Eight or nine would be good,” he said.
When asked how often the committee will meet, he said that would be up to its members. However, he said he thought it might be once a month, or even more frequently, if issues arise on which the School Committee might seek guidance.
In February, a parent at the regional middle-high school said her daughter, who is Black, had been called the N-word and had been treated as chattel in a social media “slave auction” conducted by some classmates. She also said after administrators were made aware of these incidents, the perpetrators were not adequately punished and did not follow through on their promise to host a school-wide assembly on diversity and tolerance. The assembly later did take place, after the parent had made her criticisms public.
Later in the spring, administrators discovered racist graffiti on the walls of a bathroom at the school.
Stevenson said the district has set up an online portal to take applications for those who want to serve on the committee, linked at stgrsd.org.
Stevenson said he hasn’t set a deadline for applications to serve on the PACT Committee, but that he is hoping the members chosen by the School Committee can be selected by the third week in August, when the School Committee meets at its annual retreat.
