Gordon goes back to School Committee

LYNN – Gordon College President Michael Lindsay will be one of the speakers asking the School Committee tonight to reconsider last year’s vote to sever ties with Gordon over its request for exemption from federal non-discrimination language.The hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the committee hearing room on the first floor of the school administration building, 100 Bennett St.Lynn residents and Gordon employees and students packed the room last August to speak for and against an end to the Lynn schools-Gordon relationship. The non-denominational Christian college is located in Wenham.Lindsay, in a letter to the “Gordon Community” written last July, said he signed a letter seeking a religious exemption from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act “to affirm the College’s support of the underlying issue of religious liberty.”Committee members voted 4-3 Aug. 28 to sever ties with Gordon – members Charlie Gallo, John Ford, Patricia Capano and Maria Carrasco voting for the separation; and Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy and committee members Rick Starbard and Donna Coppola voting to preserve the relationship between the schools and Gordon.Residents opposed to the vote launched a petition drive last November to ask the committee to reconsider its vote. On April 14, City Clerk Mary Audley confirmed Lori D’Amico and other petition organizers gathered 153 signatures – three more than required under the City Charter – to ask to have the Gordon question revisited.D’Amico said the committee should take a second look at the 11-year relationship between Gordon and Lynn schools and weigh that tenure against Lindsay’s actions.”The president (Lindsay) asking for an exemption isn’t a violation of the law,” she said.But Gallo, who led last year’s efforts to sever ties with Gordon, stated in a written commentary that Lynn schools have not suffered from the lack of a relationship with Gordon. He called last year’s committee vote a stand against discrimination, but Gordon spokesman Rick Sweeney said the college and local schools have strong ties.”Twenty percent of teachers in Lynn are Gordon graduates. It’s an important relationship we would love to be able to re-engage,” Sweeney said.