MARBLEHEAD — The School Committee agreed to hire an independent investigator to determine the merit of internal discrimination allegations, but did not vote to appoint a candidate.
The committee is looking to schedule a meeting next week to discuss which candidate it will choose for the investigation.
Parents of children in the school district received an email from interim Superintendent Theresa McGuinness on June 13 stating, “We (the district) have multiple formal complaints of harassment and discrimination from interpersonal disputes among adults working for the district.”
According to the statement, the district “attempted to investigate the claims internally, but the investigators themselves have been subjected to accusations of being conflicted.”
The committee approved the hiring of an independent investigator to look into all of the complaints that have been made and determine their merit. It was scheduled to vote on an individual candidate to conduct the investigation, but postponed the hire in order to gain more information on each candidate before making a decision.
“The severity of this is big, and as a result, I want to make sure it is done properly. In order to do that, I think we need these people, organizations to present to us,” Committee member Alison Taylor said. “I don’t want this to sound as if I’m delaying the vote, I fully support the independent investigation.”
Attorney Thomas Costello, who is representing the district, provided a letter to Committee Chair Sarah Fox and other committee members detailing three candidates for the internal investigation who were recommended to his firm. The letter was sent two days before the scheduled vote.
The letter included the organizations’ resumes and rates for the investigation.
“They are all qualified to do this type of investigation,” Costello said. “They all do discrimination investigations.”
Committee member Al Williams agreed with Taylor that the committee has to conduct further vetting before voting to approve any candidates for the investigation.
This vote followed a two-hour-long public-comment hearing, during which multiple constituents voiced their concerns, describing a rise of antisemitism in Marblehead and discrimination students are facing within the district.
Rabbi Yossi Lipsker of Chabad of the North Shore said at the committee’s meeting that people have come forward in distress and described feeling singled out.
“It is our obligation as a community to pursue clarification of that until there is no need for clarity,” he said. “This is not about slandering anybody or defaming anyone, it is simply about pursuing a practice of validating distress.”
In an interview with The Item, Rabbi Lipsker said he has noticed a rise in antisemitism in Marblehead.
“The consensus was that the rising number of instances and the way they were dealt with have come together to create a serious issue,” Rabbi Lipsker said.
He said he has a “general concern in society and the community of a stubborn refusal to look at the reality of the situation.”
Additionally, Police Chief Dennis King said that the town is seeing a rise in antisemitic activity at a Task Force against Discrimination meeting last week. He referred to “slap tags,” a kind of graffiti, that were placed on signs at the Jewish Community Center and near the high school, and said the slap tag at the JCC as antisemitic.
He said the Police Department is currently investigating the incident.
King also described an incident of vandalism at a porta-potty at Tower Elementary School, which had language written on it “that could be understood as antisemitic.” He said the investigation is also ongoing.
Before that writing was discovered, King said the department arrested two adults who were then charged with vandalism, hate crimes, and assault after they allegedly vandalized a “pro-Israel” lawn sign, resulting in a confrontation with a resident.
King said the two adults who were arrested are not residents of the town and did not have any prior record of this type of activity.
He said that as far as he knows, Marblehead was not specifically targeted.
