The Easthampton School Committee is asking for City Councilor Owen Zaret to be censured after miscommunication about antisemitic instances in the school district.
Zaret said he believes there's a rise in antisemitism in the school district based on at least five incidents that have occurred, which families have informed him about. He said he doesn't think the school committee is being receptive to his concerns.
“Can we have more of a dialogue? Could you be curious here? That curiosity and that openness I don't think are occurring,” Zaret said, adding he attempted to organize a panel discussion during Jewish American Heritage Month and that was declined. "I feel there's been some responses saying essentially like 'we've got this,' but not like a welcoming sort of invitation to say, 'look, we hear you. And this is a concern of ours as well.'"
Laura Scott, chairperson for the school committee, said some of the incidents involved a verbal exchange between two students and drawings by young school children of what could be perceived as "hateful" symbols.
"It became clear that those children did not understand what they had written or drawn, and that was handled through an educational lens. But in both of those instances, we did notify the police just in case," Scott said.
Addressing the concerns
Scott said members have spoken to Zaret about his concerns.
"I can't speak to the feelings of councilor's, but I can speak to the facts of the situation which are that he has had, I can't even count how many email threads, in-person meetings, text messages in my one year tenure as chair, there have been dozens," Scott said.
Zarat does not believe those communications have been enough, saying he wants more than to be included in "an e-mail thread."
"I wasn't saying here, take these resources and let me know you got them. I was saying, hey, take these resources, read them, and I'd like to follow up with a meeting to discuss how these affect our community, how we work together as a city council and school committee, and how we can build a stronger community that rejects all forms of hate," he said.
Scott said the School Committee is constantly working on anti-discrimination curriculum.
“I certainly wouldn't say that our curriculum around anti bias, anti-discrimination, trauma informed responses, social emotional learning, restorative justice, those are things we're constantly working on,” Scott said. “But it is also not any current lacking effort or interest by this committee, by our superintendent, by our district administrators, or by our staff. It is front of mind for everyone.”
Submitting the censure letter
Scott said she and City Council President Salem Derby received an email from Councilor Zaret this week asking that they pause the request for censure and have a discussion about their differences before taking any action.
Scott said she’s confused by Zaret’s request given their history.
“Those conversations might, in the moment, to the participating folks, feel very positive and productive. But we have seen a year-long pattern of behavior demonstrating the opposite,” Scott said. “As soon as we end that email or end that meeting, the counselor will then go out to a variety of public and private arenas and share that he is dissatisfied, or continue with a narrative that there are things happening in the schools that are not happening or they are happening on a scale that they are not happening at, or that the school department is not doing anything to address them, which is also not true, and that his request for an audience has been denied, which of course they haven't.”
The committee did not pause the censure instead reading the entire 4-page letter in front of the City Council Wednesday night.
Scott read the letter and then three other committee members spoke in support of the censure, including Sam Hunter, Megan Harvey and Linda Markee. Both Markee and Hunter said they have had a good relationship with Zarat outside of the conflict between him and the committee.
"This is an action that was extremely difficult to make because I have had a relationship with Councilor Zarat that I have valued," Markee said. "It's also an easy decision to make when you realize that there are clear situations and boundaries that have been stepped over. "
Zarat responded saying he is proudly Jewish and listed statistics about the rise of antisemitism in the nation and the state of Massachusetts, which has seen a 70% increase in 2022-2023. He once again offered an invitation to collaborate on a possible taskforce made up of city leaders and residents to address his concerns about antisemitism in the schools and the safety of students in general.
"I believe that we have shared concerns for the students in our community — myself and the school committee and school administration," he said.
Accusations of bullying
City Councilor Koni Denham said she is "heartbroken" by the situation.
"I do believe there are Jewish people in this community, as there are other people of color, as there are women, as there are members of the LGBTQ+ community who hurt," she said. "I know that, I see that, I experience that."
She went on to accuse Zarat of abusing and bullying people to get his point across.
"I'm incredibly sad about the experience of people, individuals on the school committee, the majority who are women, there are members of the LGBTQ+ community," she said, going on to recount personal conflicts she has had with Zarat.
Zarat interrupted her saying, "I feel the statements are speculative and rumor mongering and not maybe fully represented of the relationship."
Denham went on to say she did not run for city council to "pay attention to the emotional needs of other people on the council."
"I ran for this council to represent members of this community, so I could meet the needs of members of this community. That is why we are here," Denham said. "And the suggestion that we don't care about the needs of other people is just false, but we also don't have to be bullied constantly."
Zarat took issue with her use of the term bullying in reference to his behavior.
"I think those are very strong [terms] and are making suggestions to the public that might be misleading," he said.
The City Council voted to move the review of the censure to its rules and government relations sub committee.
NEPM's Elizabeth Román contributed to this article.