Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting was interrupted by a toxic tirade against the LGBTQ+ community, and particularly trans people. The hateful diatribe, which LexObserver will not quote, went on uninterrupted for nearly three minutes, the time allowed for comment during the Community Speak section of the meeting.
The speaker gave the name “Andy o Breen” and an address on Massachusetts Ave. He joined the meeting via Zoom with his camera off.
There does not appear to be anyone by that name in Lexington. The address he gave is actually the address of Maxima Books, whose owners said they “have nothing to do with this person” adding, “we’re a welcoming, safe space with open doors to all genders, races and people.”
A Twitter account with the name Andy o Breen shows a series of videos of hate speech at public meetings, including one in which a man in a t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “white power” gives a Nazi salute at a city council meeting in Walnut Creek, CA, and another in which a man in sun glasses makes an antisemitic speech at a recent city council meeting in Evanston, Il. An article in the Jerusalem Post mentions a commenter named “Andy O’Breen” who also made antisemitic remarks at the same meeting in Evanston.
At the end of his rant on Tuesday, the speaker mentioned two websites both containing white-supremacist, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ content.
A recent article in the Boston Globe says that at least four other local communities, including Marblehead, Framingham, Brookline and Ashland, faced similar “zoom bombings” this month. It’s unclear if any were the same speaker, but they delivered similar messages. The Anti-Defamation League has recorded more than 140 incidents in which public meetings across the country have been interrupted by extremist trolls, many associated with the same group whose website was mentioned at the School Committee meeting.
Members of the School Committee did not interrupt the speaker but condemned the speech immediately after. Committee member Larry Freeman was the first to speak, saying, “I don’t know what kind of policies we have in place that allow that kind of hate speech, but we need to revisit them.”
Superintendent Julie Hackett followed by reading from a letter she had written to the school community last week about the death of a 16-year old non-binary student in Oklahoma, Nex Benedict. “In Lexington, we believe in the dignity of all genders,” she said.
Parents who attended the meeting to raise concerns about children with learning differences lamented the fact that the conversation had been hijacked. A major agenda item for the meeting had been a discussion of the annual systemic barriers report, which highlights challenges that both Black and special education students continue to face in the district. “The systemic barriers report echoes concerns from Monday’s LexSEPTA Candidate forum shedding light on challenges faced by special education students and families, including two-thirds struggling with reading, over half involved in suspensions, unwanted out-of-district placements, limited participation in honors classes, and mental health and mental health issues,” said Jess Quattrocchi, the co-chair of LexSEPTA. Following the interruption, “heartbreaking testimonies about students failed by the system were barely heard or acknowledged, pushed to around 11 p.m.”
There seemed to be some disagreement or confusion about whether or not the committee was legally allowed to interrupt the speaker. Last year, the MA Supreme Court ruled that “civility…can’t be required in a public comment session of a governmental meeting.”
A letter to the school community from Dr. Hackett and School Committee Chairperson Sara Cuthbertson on Thursday said that following the meeting, the school district’s attorney reviewed the transcripts and said that the speaker’s remarks were a violation of the committee’s non-discrimination policy. Hackett and Cuthbertson said that if such incidents continue, they may need to eliminate Community Speak, which they would prefer not to do.
“We are considering all of our available options to preserve community input and accessibility, while abiding by the First Amendment,” the letter said.
Thank you to the residents, employees & representatives & civil servants of Lexington for their deep work to support LGBTQIA+ people & LexSEPTA. I hope these causes will not be seen as opposed to one another – instead, I hope both constituencies may see themselves as united in having been harmed by an out of town hate-monger. Indeed, the communities of SEPTA and LGBTQIA+ students likely overlap in constituencies – trans folks are statistically more likely to be autistic and LGBTQIA+ folks are represented across all demographics. I am trans & nonbinary and graduated from LHS in ’06, while my older sister graduated from LHS & the LABBB program in ’02. After graduating & leaving home, I sought connection with other young adults with IDD through programs like Best Buddies. As a visibly gender nonconforming person, I frequently experienced young adults with IDD seeking me out to “come out” to me, as they too experienced “the closet” but didn’t have as much an opportunity as I did to strike out on their own and find lgbqia+ community, since their lives were more constrained by supportive institutions like longer time spent living at home with parents, group homes or other 24/7 institutional support. Many supports do exist for my lgtbqia+ family with intellectual or developmental disabilities, autism or other requirements for disability support – such as rainbow support groups – it just takes more work to find them and someone to listen and sometimes advocate for the individual. Again, our causes are united, not opposed. I read this article with sorrow for all affected and love for all in my extended family of special ed students, lgbtqia+ students, and all their families.
Ty August for sharing your story! I am happy to hear that you truly understand the “we all belong” message I am always portraying. This is a great opportunity to do better in Lexington and to include all and see us as a community not separate groups. I appreciate your input here and love that you found yourself and your voice in this community! I see that the subgroups of LexSEPTA/SEPAC helped (IDD) you when you were younger; this makes my heart warm. Ty again for sharing your thoughts. I see and hear you and appreciate your comments. There is a larger message here of equity for all including LGBTQIA+ and students with all types of disabilities, marginalized people, I cannot say it enough, we need to use our actions to show towards one another that we truly all belong. I do not want the children who cannot read get left behind. We need to listen to their stories and put an action plan into place. We need LPS to collaborate with us to help all these students. Even if the percentage seems on the lower end in their literacy presentations, these percentages have people behind them and they all should matter. Every child should be taught to read with scientific evidence based methods, structured literacy methods. We need to stop this madness of using these non evidence based methods to teach reading. We know from the science it doesn’t work and we need to stop confusing our vulnerable students and help them learn to read the right way. This is the whole point of our group we created Lex4Literacy. We formed to educate more parents, children, teachers, anyone who will listen to inform them there is a reason why your kid cannot read in Lexington. Not just Lexington, let me be clear this is a national issue and truly makes my heartbreak that there is a solution for this problem and the educators “the experts” as Dr. Hackett calls them and she says things to me like “we see things differently.” I am unclear how she see things differently when it comes to science and the facts, these kids cannot read! We need to do better in Lexington.