Human rights board: Bring voting back to Ford School

LYNN – After months of meetings, presentations and testimony, the Human Rights Commission review board voted Tuesday to recommend that voting be restored to the Ford School.”While we find no willful violation of human rights, the impact of this move has harmed voting accessibility for the surrounding community,” said HRC member Jeff Crosby in his official motion. “We therefore recommend that the Election Commission and the City Council work affirmatively with the Highlands Coalition to resolve any barriers to voting at the Ford School and return voting to the Ford School.””Well said,” said commission member Pamela Freeman.HRC member Jeanne E. McAuley was initially concerned that the committee was at an impasse. If the state said the school did not meet its standards for handicap accessibility and the Election Commission didn’t approve, she didn’t think the commission could make a positive recommendation.”I don’t know what kind of legs we have to stand on in that case,” she said.Commission member Laura McGaughey-Marquez noted that the Hollingsworth Street building is used as a public school, for adult education classes, for community events and even a community garden.”It’s OK to have all these things happening, but it’s not okay to vote?” she said.Crosby said he didn’t believe that human rights had been violated by the lack of voting at the school, but he does believe that voting on the whole has been impacted. He said voting has dropped 30 percent in a city that already suffers from a disparity in who votes and who doesn’t.City Clerk Mary Audley, who heads the Election Department, told the commission several months ago that she had plans to bring voting back to the Highlands but to KIPP Academy, located less than half a mile away. Crosby essentially called the idea unacceptable.”It’s not a community school,” he said. “It’s different. Ford is a neighborhood school.”Commission member Audrey Jimenez said she’d like to give the Highlands Coalition time to address the accessibility shortcomings noted by the state. In its report, the state took issue with markings for handicap parking in the parking lot and with handicap ramp.”We’re looking at a cluster of people that don’t have access or the advocacy skills,” added Freeman. “I think it comes down to access.”Chairman Robert Tucker said he didn’t think there was any deliberately unfair or unequal treatment in the decision made by Audley to move voting out of the Ford School a decade ago.”I don’t think there was unlawful discrimination either, I think decisions were made for other reasons,” he said. “But we can certainly recommend, that’s all we can do.”The committee voted unanimously to make the recommendation.Highlands Coalition member Wendy Joseph said she thought the board did an excellent job “working within the confines of its bylaws.”The decision to restore voting will ultimately be in the hands of the City Council, however, who votes on polling places based on the recommendation of the Election Commission.