Corrected and updated April 8, 2021
Steve Peisch and Kate Lucey’s emotional letter makes clear they failed to read, or chose to deliberately misrepresent, my letter. Their red herrings reinforce my observation that so-called diversity never allows diverse opinion or thought.
Arm in Arm member Sharon Cronin at the Select Board meeting said, “No, I was just finishing a thought regarding reporting, responding to acts of prejudice, that Chief Denmark would be a great person to be involved in this process.” Cronin and Linda Dwight wrote in [a letter to] the Press, ”… we believe that involving Chief Denmark with respect to establishing a reporting mechanism might prove helpful.” Police involvement to report a crime is appropriate. Use of police to establish codes of conduct is most dangerous. The Stasi and other Communist countries’ police forces were (are) involved in this way to suppress any expressions that disagreed with the government. This use of police power is designed to squelch diversity of opinion and thought.
Cronin and Dwight wrote in the Press, “In a survey done in the fall, 47% of 171 responding Bromfield students reported witnessing or experiencing racism or bias.” This statistic is misleading. Actually, of the 593 Bromfield students (source DESE), only 13.6% reported witnessing racism or bias. Cronin and Dwight imply that the 47% applies to town employees and volunteers. They use their false statistic of 47% to create an artificial need for their diversity officer and for diversity training for town employees and volunteers.
Rather than hiring another employee, involve the parents if a child exhibits racist behavior. Subsequent incidents can be noted on the student’s transcript. Few parents would not address the presented problem.
Deborah Skauen
Still River Road
Editor's note: This letter has been corrected and updated. The original version named Sharon Cronin as a School Committee member. She is a member of Arm in Arm, not the School Commitee.