LYNN — Candidates for School Committee discussed diversity in the city’s public schools at a debate Wednesday night, with many candidates saying that the district needs to do more to address the issue of racism.
The event, held at Lynn Museum and hosted by participants in Prevent the Cycle’s summer youth program, was attended by current School Committee members Brian Castellanos, Donna Coppola and Lorraine Gately, along with candidates Eric Dugan, Daniel Richard, Tiffany Magnolia, Lenny Peña, Sandra Lopez and PoSan Ung.
“There may be a zero-tolerance policy, but the fact is it still happens,” Peña said of racism experienced by students.
Asked if they believed there was a lack of understanding of diversity, inclusivity and racism in Lynn schools, every candidate raised their hand. However, some candidates had different ideas of the best way to address the issue, including on how to make sure that the district’s teachers and staff better reflect the diversity of its students.
“It’s a little bit easier to talk to somebody that looks like me, dresses like me, talks like me,” said Richard, a person of color.
Magnolia and Dugan both expressed support for a teacher education program that would encourage students to become teachers, bringing them back into Lynn Public Schools as adults.
“Encouraging our children to become teachers is critical to help with staffing, especially students of color,” Dugan said. “Giving them a pathway and tapping into the resources in the schools and helping them find a pathway to get into education is critical.”
Coppola said that the district needs to focus on recruitment, noting that they recently hired Dr. Patrick Tutwiler, who is Black, as superintendent, and require their parent liaisons to speak Spanish.
“Lots of times, we don’t have minority candidates applying for the jobs,” Coppola said.
Castellanos said that the district should be paying attention to its hiring, retention and recruitment data to improve the situation.
“We need to do better,” he said. “Especially when it comes to retaining staff of color, because as you know, representation matters.”
Lopez said that to address discrimination within the schools, the district needs to look beyond what happens in school buildings.
“The first thing we need to do is include the family in this problem,” she said. “Discrimination and racism come from the home.”
In addition, most of the candidates agreed that there should be a better system for students to report incidents of racism, whether they come from other students, teachers or other school staff. Magnolia emphasized that it can be very difficult for students to bring up that discrimination when it is coming from someone like a teacher who has power over them.
“If we don’t acknowledge that power dynamic, we’re disenfranchising our students,” she said.
Ung suggested that the district implement an online reporting system that would allow reporters to track what is being done about their complaints.
“We live in a time where we can make use of technology to make that safe space,” he said. “They can track the reporting. Did it go to a counselor, the principal, the superintendent?”
The candidates also discussed the role of the COVID-19 pandemic in exposing inequities in the education system, especially with regard to technology access and food insecurity. Peña said that he would like to see the district partner more with local nonprofits like the YMCA and the Boys & Girls Clubs to provide more services to its students.
Magnolia said that among other issues, the pandemic showed the importance of public spaces like libraries, which were no longer accessible when everything shut down. She said that Lynn should look harder at making its school facilities more accessible, especially because the city does not have other resources like a recreation center.
“Where do students who live in crowded conditions go? Schools are a part of this public spaces discussion,” she said.
Gately noted that the district was able to provide a laptop to every student during the pandemic to use for remote learning, and that free wi-fi was made available to students who needed it.
“The pandemic helped us to move our district ahead to where we should have been,” Gately said. “Now, we’re going to continue to move.”
