The Chelsea School Committee adopted its first written public comment policy on October 1, 8-0 with Chair Ana Hernandez absent, after a parent told the committee she had been harassed online for the way she addressed the superintendent at a meeting earlier this year. Before the vote, committee member Jake Small apologized to her from the dais “on behalf of all of us.”
The policy had been tabled on September 3, when a member asked to replace the draft’s ban on “disruptive comments” with model language that protects speech regardless of viewpoint (our report on that meeting). A subcommittee revised it on September 10. Vice Chair Katherine Cabral ran the October meeting.
“I was severely harassed online”
A Chelsea parent, born and raised in the city, told the committee that earlier this year, during budget discussions, she addressed Superintendent Almi Abeyta by name rather than by title. “I got severely harassed,” she said. She said she was called names, told she was anti-woman and anti-Latina, and told she was not educated. “Imagine if this would have been someone else that doesn’t have a backbone like I do. That person would never speak again.” With a policy that spells out consequences for members of the public who step out of line, she asked, “what is the repercussion if our voted body does the same?”
Small spoke first when the policy came back up. “It troubled me to learn of a community member being harmed, harassed, targeted, as a result of any ongoings in this chamber, by our body, by our cabinet,” he said. “I apologize on behalf of all of us. That’s unfair.” He called his remarks “a sort of public moment of accountability.”
What speakers asked for
Zachary Ryan, a Chelsea parent with two children in the schools, asked the committee to vote no. “I’ve been to these meetings for a year. I’ve never heard anybody talk to you disrespectfully. I’ve heard people speak with passion,” he said. Written comment is no answer for parents who cannot read or write, he said: “What are you going to do for them?” He also asked that a parent involvement meeting set for a Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. be moved or put online, and asked the district to publish reading and literacy results for every school.
Kellyanne Curley, a multilingual educator at the Early Learning Center who lives in Malden, said the revised draft now makes clear that protected speech is protected and allows sign-ups on the day of a meeting. She asked what “the discretion of the chair” to limit comment would mean in practice, and what the committee would do if a budget hearing again ran past the 10 p.m. cutoff, as one did last year.
What the committee said
Member Sarah Neville said the policy loosens the rules more than it tightens them. “The status quo before was just that the chair was allowed to cut it off anytime she wanted,” she said. “This actually doesn’t necessarily limit it more. It just makes it a little more predictable.” Another member asked that the policy define “an exceptionally high number” of advance sign-ups, the condition under which day-of sign-ups can be closed; the draft already cuts speaking time when 20 or more people sign up. Neville said she would leave that phrase alone so the committee keeps the flexibility to hear everyone.
Member Mayra Balderas said members are public figures and members of the public are not, and that meetings are streamed. “We don’t have to like each other but we do have to respect each other,” she said. Member Claryangeliz Covas Caraballo asked residents to email and call members before raising problems at the podium, so that members are not “hearing and listening through to things for the very first time on a podium.”
The policy was adopted with one fix Small found: in the rule on room capacity, “the meeting in being held” now reads “the meeting is being held.”
Superintendent Abeyta’s report from the same meeting, on state test results, teacher turnover and enrollment, is in our second story.