(Photo/Laura Hayes)
SOUTHBOROUGH – After a complaint that a fifth-grade teacher at Margaret A. Neary School held a mock slave auction, an independent audit indicated that Principal Kathleen Valenti did not inform the district’s civil rights coordinator about the incident or conduct an investigation.
In late May, Superintendent Greg Martineau said in a letter to parents that he learned about two incidents at Neary in April. According to his letter, the auction occurred during a history lesson about the triangle trade and slave auctions in January. The second incident, which happened in April, occurred when a teacher was reading a book aloud and used the “n-word,” which did not appear in the book.
In June, the Southborough School Committee voted to conduct an external audit into the investigation; it ultimately reached a contract with with Comprehensive Investigations and Consulting (CIC).
CIC’s Daniel Bennett and John Benzan, who were tasked with assessing if Southborough Public Schools has documented investigation policies and procedures, presented to the School Committee on Oct. 17.
“The problem here was the principal responded, but they took the slave auction and they didn’t notify the civil rights coordinator and they also didn’t conduct an investigation into it,” said Bennett. “The timeliness of the response of the principal wasn’t correct under the policies and procedures.”
They said the civil rights coordinator was informed after learning about the slur.
“Once that happened, the civil rights coordinator took effective and immediate action,” said Bennett. “The mistake was the principal should have informed the civil rights coordinator of the mock slave auction so that the civil rights coordinator could have taken the same actions that they did when they learned about the racial slur.”
Bennett said that once Martineau was aware of the incident, he “quickly responded” and met with the involved parties within days.
The audit said that communication was expedient and thorough, with the exception of Valenti at points, and the administration was responsive via email.
“The timeliness with respect to what happened after the racial slur incident and how your civil rights coordinator and your superintendent reacted — how fast they did it — was unlike what we see in other communities. It was way faster and more comprehensive,” said Benzan.
Bennett and Benzan also praised the district’s response, including training on investigative procedures; hiring a director of equity, belonging and community engagement; and meeting with Sandy Hook Promise to set up Say Something Anonymous Reporting tools, among others.
As part of its recommendations, CIC said several terms should be added to the Civil Rights Nondiscrimination Policy, including complaint (or report), hate crime, hostile environment, protected class, respondent, school community and target (or victim). Additionally, it recommended adding a statement of responsibility, which would be part of training; an expansion of complaint procedures; and an explanation of the formal investigation process and appeals process.
After new policies and procedures are created, copies should be sent out, and the district should hold a public meeting to address questions and meet with staff and administration on how to implement them. CIC recommended that there should be training on the policies annually.
Andrea Hamilton, whose child was in the class, said she was surprised that there were parts of the timeline that did not come up as part of the audit. She noted that on May 1, phone calls were made to every member of the classroom between Valenti and the teacher.
“In those phone calls, parents were not informed of the scope of the auction, and they were told that the slur was used because it was read directly from the book. That was a lie,” Hamilton said.
She said she reached out to the School Committee, asking if parents from the classroom would have the opportunity to be interviewed as part of the audit. She said she never received a response and was not interviewed.
“I don’t know where all of the information here is coming from because, again, it feels like there were a couple of big misses,” Hamilton said. “I’m struggling a little with faith and confidence of this body’s ability to have oversight for itself.”
