MARBLEHEAD – The town’s Task Force Against Discrimination (TFAD) discussed the changes to the METCO Program in Marblehead schools, as well as recent and upcoming events.
TFAD Co-Chair Diane Gora opened the meeting on the matter of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), a public school integration program that brings children from racially imbalanced urban schools in Boston to predominantly white suburban schools in neighboring communities.
Gora said they would not be taking new METCO kids in Marblehead lower elementary schools in the coming school year. The youngest current METCO student is a first grader at Glover Elementary, who will stay next year, along with a few second graders.
She noted that it remains “difficult for the young kids” as there were, notably, issues of discrimination on the bus.
Such occurrences have happened before in the Boston area, The Boston Globe reported last year.
Instead of admitting elementary students, METCO middle schoolers will enter Marblehead schools in September.
Among recent events, the LAPPIN Foundation coordinated a presentation by 92-year-old Holocaust survivor Magda Bader, who spoke before more than 400 students at Veterans Middle School on June 10.
“It was a phenomenal presentation, the best I’ve ever heard,” said TFAD member Maura Dartley-Rocco, who has been assisting in these interventions for more than 10 years.
TFAD member Louis Meyi suggested the presentation of portraits of Harriet Tubman and John Lewis at Veterans Middle School in September.
