Selectboard Statement On Handling of Middle School Book Complaint

As many of you are aware-----our Police Department received a complaint on December 8th from an individual who expressed concern about images and content in a book being provided to students at the W.E.B. Du Bois Middle School. A verbal statement and three (3) photographs were provided by the complainant. The officer that received the complaint reported it to the Police Chief, who then contacted the School Superintendent and arranged for an officer to meet with the school’s principal and a teacher.

After meeting with school officials and determining that the book was not able to be located, the officer contacted the Berkshire District Attorney’s office for guidance. It was ultimately determined that the material was not of a criminal nature and that from that point on the matter should be handled internally, by school officials.

We would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge this incident tonight----as a board---in our first public meeting since the incident took place.

We fully recognize the impact this has had on our school community and the community as a whole---and it will take both time and committed action for us to fully recover.

At this time, the Town Manager is reviewing the Town’s internal policies and procedures with the Police Chief—-and with the guidance of counsel. The Police Department is also conducting its own internal de-briefing process to determine how any similar future situation could and would be handled differently.

A public listening session will be scheduled once this review process concludes.

We hope this will be an opportunity to review our policies---- revise them as necessary----and learn from this situation. We also hope that, in time, we can re-build the Town’s longstanding positive working relationship with the school district, its staff, its faculty, and its students.

As a Board policy, we do not generally allow non-residents to speak during citizen-speak time----but I’m aware that there are individuals from the school community here tonight that would like to speak since Great Barrington is home to our regional school district. For that reason, I intend to relax our policy for this one topic.

We welcome your feedback tonight. Your thoughts will guide us as we move forward.