The Burlington School Committee met for the first time Tuesday night, since what officials call “an incident of homophobia” happened at Marshall Simonds Middle School.
“Unfortunately, during the pride theme day, there were behaviors that were hurtful to students and the school community. We are now involved in a healing process,” said chairwoman Martha Simon.
In opening remarks, school leaders shared their support for the LGBTQ+ community while pointing to the age of the students involved.
“Ascribing hate to middle school children who are not yet fully developed I think is a mistake,” said Burlington Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Eric Conti.
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In public comment, parents, community members and even former students shared personal stories and questioned student’s safety.
“I’m here to let you that this was not a one-off incident,” said Nate Carey, a former Burlington Public Schools student. “Homophobia has been a pressing issue throughout the BHS school system, in the town of Burlington as a whole, for a while now.”
The meeting comes after an incident on June 2 when some students destroyed rainbow decorations during a pride spirit day event.
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Groups also reportedly wore red, white, and blue and chanted that their pronouns were “USA.”
“This effectively turns the American flag, a symbol that is supposed to stand for every American, into a weapon against a marginalized community, a sense of division, rather than unity,” one community member said.
Many called for a diversity, equity and inclusion committee to be reinstated, and for a director to be hired. They also questioned how students were being reprimanded for their actions.
“The question is what are you, the leaders, going to do about it,” said Martha Duffield, Co-Chair of the Burlington Equity Coalition.
NBC10 Boston took those concerns to Superintendent Dr. Conti after the meeting finished, but he refused to answer any questions and walked away from our reporter.
During the meeting, he said he did not want to rush the hiring process for a DEI candidate and that he would give an update on those efforts in September.
