City Council - Education Committee Hearing on Docket #0407

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Today's hearing is being recorded and it is also being live streamed at boston.gov slash city-council-tv and broadcasted on Xfinity channel 8, RCN channel 82, Files Channel 964. Written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc at boston.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all counselors. Public testimony will be at the end of this hearing or and sprinkled throughout depending on how things are flowing. And individuals will be called in the order in which they have been signed up to speak, and they have two minutes to testify.

If you are interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-up sheet at the entrance of the chamber. And if you're looking to testify virtually, please email our central staff liaison megan.kavanaugh at boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the list today's hearing is on docket 0407 an order for a hearing to review the prevention and response to bullying, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sexual misconduct in our Boston public schools. This matter was sponsored by Councillor Julia Mejia and was referred to the committee on February 25, 2026. In order of arrival I have been joined by Councillor Murphy and Councillor Flynn

and just to note for the record that I understand that we have a lot to discuss, and I'm going to allow each of my colleagues to have some opening remarks. So, Councilor Murphy you have one minute and the floor.

Okay thank you. Thank you for filing and holding this hearing. I know it's something, a hearing similar we've had over these past few years on the council and as a mom, former teacher This matters, right? It matters a lot and it matters that we listen to our students and our families. And thank you for putting them first Feeling safe and being willing to speak up and share. To me it's always important especially a topic that is as serious as this How are we not just reviewing and reporting, but preventing? And what are we doing for students? I often said as a teacher If we put our kids in a situation where the victim then becomes the one who's in trouble, it's a cycle where it never gets better.

There's concern for me when a system is hiding the information, right? When nothing is happening or sometimes you can feel like not enough is happening. But what we know in recent reporting has been telling us that You know, thousands of reports are just hidden and trying to hide away in a court system that says a lot about what are we afraid to talk about? Why are we not sharing the truth? And back in December 2023, I had filed a 17F to get answers on what at that point was 1,633. Substantial cases of sexual misconduct and bullying with 32% of the incidents in one school year were omitted, 25% in the next year. We shouldn't be doing that. We should be listening to those who are victim to this and be supporting, so thank you for being here.

I'm looking forward to this hearing. And I didn't know how to use this, so I made a mistake.

So I gave you extra time. Okay wait, Councilor Flynn, give me a minute to... Okay go.

Thank you Madam Chair. I am troubled by data. I am looking at that says that there were over 2,000 reports of student on student assaults that happened at BPS sexual misconduct for a period of time of six years. What I'm asking for is for BPS to be transparent, to release the information without obviously releasing any identification of the survivors of these assaults, but I do think the public needs to know exactly what's happening in Boston Public Schools system. Hiding data Thank you, Mr. President.

for these issues really have lost the credibility to lead. That's why I'm calling for a task force that residents, parents, teachers can come together and discuss these incidents, discuss these issues how we move forward. But I have lost confidence when there are 2,000 sexual assaults against students in recovering that information up. Thank you Madam Chair.

Thank you, Councilor Flynn. And I just want to note for the record that my council colleague, Councillor Louijeune has submitted a letter of absence which states dear committee on Education. I sincerely regret to inform you that because of a longstanding prior engagement, I will be unable to attend the city council's committee education hearing on docket 0407 and hearing to review the Boston Public Schools Policies, Procedurals, Training and Staffing Data Systems and Accountability Measures Related to the Prevention of and Response to Bullying, Sexual Assaults and Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct involving students including student-to-student and adult to student incidents. I believe every child, every student deserves to feel safe at school and confident that when they report harm adults would take them serious and respond with care. This is why from my first year on the City Council.

And each year since, I have filed and sponsored and or held a hearing on Boston's response to domestic violence and sexual assault working alongside advocates and survivors and service providers for our students' protections and protocols must be understandably and dependable. Students and families should know whom to contact, what happens after a report, and what support is available while an investigation proceeds. Thank you to the students, families, educators and advocates for sharing their experiences today and I look forward to reviewing their testimony and working with the committee. My staff will be attending, and I will thoroughly review the video hearing minutes and public testimony. Should you or any member of the public have any questions Please do not hesitate to reach out to my office directly at 617-635-4376. And so, just wanted to read that into the record. So I'll just begin. First of all, I just want to set the stage that I know some of these conversations could be triggering.

And I wanna be super mindful of the trauma that we all carry into the spaces and places that we walk into And so hopefully you'll walk into understanding that this is, I can't say it's a safe space because everyone's safety looks different. But I am going to try to do my best to create the container in which you could be fully expressed So that is my commitment to you all while you're here, okay? So on June the 16th 2022 I held a hearing on bullying and sexual abuse and harassment in Boston Public Schools. And since then Advocates, parents and students have continued to raise concerns and have shared their lived experience demonstrating the need for more transparent, accountable and stronger responses from BPS that are rooted in best practices, support communications and compliance. with existing laws.

Students continue to report feeling unsafe and worrying about violence in their schools. This past school year, students have asked how difficult it is for them to get the help from an adult if they were bullied, and around 18% of students said it was quite or extremely difficult. This needs to change, full stop. The climate survey shows disconnects between parents, students and educators in terms of how often bullying and violence happens within schools, and the comfort levels students have in reaching out to adults. From vulnerable students whose teachers are under active investigations for alleged child abuse and neglect to students needing to go the ER because of bullying. We have heard from the BPS community that we need to change, and change is required now.

For many of our students, school is a safe haven for them and allows them to have access to food, warmth, community, and care from school staff and their classmates. However that safe haven is threatened If proper measures are not taken to prevent and handle cases of bullying, sexual abuse, harassment, physical abuse, and other forms of violence. And students' well-being does not... and with their physical safety, but also their emotional and psychological safety. Schools should be a safe environment for students, educators and staff. MASH costs, T-Law, Citizens for Juvenile Justice, the Coalition of American Islamic Relations, Sociedad Latina and the entirety of Beja Coalition and more have used evidence-based anti-bullying curriculums and programming to fully address bullying, abuse and harassment in our schools.

acknowledge their work and work in collaboration. That means that the district must work with organizations who are on the ground doing the work, and doing it well with families. In this hearing I hope to continue the conversation we had Thank you so much for joining us. is that we're able to understand what the moment is calling for and walk out of here with solutions, and some metrics of how we're going to measure success. Because what we're not gonna do is continue to have the same conversation Thank you.

encouraging us to step it up. So with that, I see that we have also been joined by Councilor Fitzgerald. Do you have some opening remarks?

Thank you Madam Chair and thank you for everyone trying to hear. As a parent of three BPS kids myself, just here to hear some explanations and understand procedures and how they were followed or not followed and looking forward to hearing from everybody. Thank you.

And so, I will note for the record we have a large panel. Y'all each have three minutes and that's it So y'all practice that, right? And then my colleagues are going to ask questions so that if you didn't get to say everything in your three minutes, know that you will in your answers be able to speak to a point that you may have forgotten. Is that cool? Does everyone feel comfortable with that? And then the other pieces that I just want to begin with an apology. To everyone who's been a victim, to the parents who have been 51 aid because the schools don't want you walking in their classrooms Telling them like it is. So I just want to say, I am sorry. And we are here to do the work together. OK? So with that, we're going to go this way, OK? Good evening.

My name is Thaisa Santiago. I'm here today as a mother and an advocate for children who cannot always speak for themselves. My son is Aizen Wilson, he's autistic and nonverbal He was injured at a Boston public school and this experience raises serious concern for me about student safety, staff qualification, and accountability. Children like my son depend on adults around them to protect them, understand their needs and keep them safe. As a parent we should be able to trust the people responsible for our children to have proper qualifications training and licenses to do their jobs I'm asking for stronger requirements to ensure teachers and staff working with children, especially children with severe disabilities have proper current licenses in training. I also believe that teachers and caregivers who

are demanding responsibilities of caring for these children with specific disabilities deserve fair pay. The workers play an important part in our children's lives, and we must invest in the people who are caring for them as well as the children themselves. I am also asking for cameras to be installed in classrooms and other appropriate areas of school with safeguards to protect student and children's privacy. Cameras could help provide clarity when an incident occurs, that concerns are addressed appropriately. In addition, I would like parents to have the option to purchase or use body cameras for their children when wanted and needed

Subject to appropriate school policies and privacy protections. This could be especially important for nonverbal children who may not be able to explain what happened to them. Every child deserves to feel safe at school regardless of the disability or ability to communicate. Every parent deserves to know that their child is safe, protected, respected and cared for. By qualified people, I'm speaking today not only for my son but for other families who may be afraid to speak or feel unheard. or are struggling to get answers by BPS. I hope that we can move together towards meaningful changes that improve school safety, strengthen accountability

Support teachers and give parents greater peace of mind. Our children deserve protection, they deserve qualified caregivers, and they deserve to be heard even when they cannot speak Thank you for taking the time to listen.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Monica Murchison I am a parent of a child that was in Boston Public Schools. My child's name is Amazing Grace and during school hours my child was forcefully raped B.P.S., staff member during school in which she reported the incident, which should have been dealt with immediately and followed protocol should have A 51A being filed, me being contacted as the parent in the incident report. because that is BPS policy. None of that happened. My child's incident was swept under the rug, I had no knowledge about it so I continued to send my child to school every single day until she eventually had a meltdown because I was putting her into the arms of the abuser.

Eventually, when it did come to light, I did what any parent would do which is try to get more information about what it is that my child has communicated to me At that point, I was met with nothing but a disconnect from the school. The school already knew they were trying to cover up the incident and that was the reason beginning to retaliate against me as a parent. Egregious behavior ensued on me and my family, things like 51 A's being filed. And I think that You guys should really focus on that because DCF is being used to destroy families. and school is a huge source of it. You know, they will tell them whatever they need to and when you're getting these 51As filed in your hand from people like teachers, they tend to believe them more, right? So...

Nobody investigates to see if the allegations are true. They come and talk, but it's kind of like if someone who is a mandated reporter says it then it has to be true. when in fact, in my situation I had to file my own 51A do my own police report and all of those to make anybody aware. I immediately after started going above and even reached out to city councilors, the mayor herself, senators, everybody that I could to make them aware of Yes, this happened to my child. But the bigger part for me was the cover-up of it all. Like both you counselors said earlier, why are we not allowed to talk about it? Why are we're not allowed get answers in the minute that we demand These answers, as we should as parents were met with retaliation tactics. I was then trespassed out of the school. Amazing has two younger siblings that were still students at the school.

And so why should I feel safe sending my kids to a school where, number one, the abuse are still roaming around? amongst my kids and other kids as well. But then number two, a school that does not want to communicate with me or help me sort out any... Me and my child is the victim. We shouldn't be met with Resistance from a school. So I ended up ultimately pulling my kids out of school and homeschooling. In order to do that, I had to resign for my career and I had just started a business. I'm a certified chef, I had started a catering business that was doing pretty okay and I lost all of that so on top of me dealing with what was going on with my child I'm in a position where I have to be a teacher for three different kids on three different grade levels with no experience and I have no money. So how do you live and support your family in a world where we're living right now with the cost of living is extremely high, even for people with good paying jobs?

So my family just continued to spiral backwards. After about one full school year of me, I ended up having another child who was born with a heart defect Her heart ended up failing and in September, you know when the school year started this would have been last school year. So I put my child into a charter school hoping that things will get better because it's not a public school. She was then being bullied for simply being the new kid at school and the bullying escalated to the point where my child ended up with a severe concussion as well as a dislocated shoulder. The shoulder continued to dislocate 11 different occasions because of the damage done to it. Each time that I would take her to the hospital, to get the arm placed back in. The hospital's giving my child fentanyl, morphine, ketamine which is a horse tranquilizer to set the arm and then sending her home on oxys. So then I have to deal with a child who was now

you know having these narcotics and opioids in her system as well as the effects of when she's having to be weaned off of them. You know now we have to deal with suicide and Hallucinations and mental hospital stays. And I just want to side note and point out, my child never had any issues mentally, behaviorally, no... What do they call those?

No, no.

Like IEP or 501. Nothing. So this all stemmed from incidences that are really serious, look at what I told you guys, on a young child with no type of assistance. And I know I'm on time so I just want to kind of get to where we're at now. My child is still currently sitting at home right now. She's still out of school because after the incident with the arm and everything, I was met with the same exact resistance from that school. And this is a charter school. So you know we... Same thing, I ended up pulling her out of school because the school started filing 51As not telling them that the child was hurt on their grounds and that me as a parent, I'm giving doctor's notes. That saying oh, I forgot that we had a whole slideshow so that I can show proof of what I'm talking about. Doctor's note things like that, that they disregarded and they didn't include.

If you guys look up at the screen, you can see the trespass notices. There's a slide here. There's a slide there showing the actual...

So then we have...

A FERPA request that to this day by law they're supposed to provide me with everything I requested. To this day, I never got it and everything's time stamped and dated. You're looking at the incident of what happened. Two sentences long. It's over a month later, you know they try to like that date what you asked for. They had an outside agency come in and speak with my child wrote a statement and had her signed it without my knowledge She's a minor child. Nobody should be meeting with her. But where we're at today, my child is still out of school. No matter who I have went to and I come here regularly trying to talk to the mayor and get a meeting with By law, my child should be educated. There's no reason why she can't get a tutor. There is no reason she doesn't have a Chromebook, a packet of papers from school. They will not work with me. and a lot of people say get an attorney, we did that. They don't work with the attorney either.

And so like I said, I wanna point all of this out because a lotta people talk about what happened in school, we know that. What about the aftermath of what the family has to deal with? You know, after this. How would you guys who all say y'all are parents, how would you deal with seeing your child going in and out of mental hospitals when you know what caused it? How do you heal that trauma? Especially when the more that you speak, the more people retaliate against you and try to defamate your character. They never call you what you are which is a concerned parent A mom who's traumatized, my child is not the only one who is traumatized. And so moving forward I think we need to focus on the more serious Miss of things like that. There's a child home right now who I've been pleading with for the last two years for help with educating her.

So I want to know for the record, all of y'all don't think you're going to get as much time as Monica did. Don't even try it. And every voice here is important. I just wanted to acknowledge that both of these parents have been at this for a few years, working with our office bringing this to our attention. And it takes a lot of courage to speak truth to power and sometimes you just have to sit and listen Be in the space. So thank you, Monica and I want to acknowledge that we also have been joined by Councilor Culpepper when it's time for questions You could have some remarks so we can keep things No, I don't do that I'm the chair. All right, so we get two minutes. Who wants to go next? Don't be trying it. Y'all got three minutes, Tia. Don't try it. Somebody get the person a cough drop.

You're messing up my show here, okay? All right let's go. Who wants to go next? Oh sorry no I didn't know. Okay you good?

Yep. So I'm here today speaking from a few different perspectives. First of all, as a parent who's been impacted My daughter is eight years old and there was sexual misconduct on her bus two years in a row. She has been physically assaulted on numerous occasions, bullied on numerous She is the sweetest girl, always getting star tickets in her class. She loves to help and like Monica was saying this has a long lasting impact on the children and on the parents, of course we're all parents. And we know what it feels like when we want to protect our babies and feel powerless for the transparency not to be there For you not to receive the support when you're taking all the proper steps and channels, it's very hard.

My daughter has a trauma history already due to domestic violence. against me from her father and emotional abuse towards her as a baby. She was a baby, and stuff that she still has therapy. got in support throughout the years and I want her to continue to make progress, which is hard when she's being impacted just simply for going to school. And she has such a joy about school, she loves school and I don't want that to be tainted for her. I want her to feel passionate, I want here to feel like she can do anything she puts her mind to and so we're talking about the quality of lives our children have that make them become contributing members of society When they get older. And so we want to take care of them in these moments because we know we're raising the next generation to come behind us. and we want strong, strong generation to come behind us. And I also work with children as well as a family partner at the Home for Little Wanderers

and intensive home based therapeutic care model. And a lot of our children, they already have their own behavioral issues or different issues that they're facing And when then they're now on top of that dealing with bullying and assaults and different types of things in their schools, it's hard for them to make the progress that they need so that they can transition to go back home with their families. So it's on a lot of different levels. And even here at City Hall, on your footsteps as I was walking up, one of your volunteers here helped me to get upstairs and she was just talking Her grandchild is impacted by this and how there needs to be change. So even here at your own footsteps, at City Hall it's happening and we're not the anomaly us who are talking today We are not the exception to the rule. This is happening, it's very pervasive and concerning, and we need to address it.

And I believe in everything that has been said so far. Thank you council members, you guys have Everything you have said has been spot on and we appreciate the support, and we demand that there's actual action. We've been talking about this for a while but something needs to be done moving forward so I thank you for your time.

So who wants, who's going next?

I'm happy to go, Councilor. Good afternoon. My name is Leon Smith. I'm an attorney and executive director at Citizens for Juvenile Justice We're a research and policy organization that focuses on youth need, and ensuring there's transparency in all institutions to support young people. I want to thank parents for speaking, and I just want to simply state that research backs up what you are saying. Studies from the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development and the American Psychological Association point out, bullying doesn't just negatively impact young people in the moment. It has an ongoing impact that follows young people into adulthood as it has been established that young people who are bullied suffer depression PTSD and higher rates of substance use, and even system involvement into adulthood. I also need to point out that young people who engage in bullying often have been victimized themselves, never gotten support and then they go from being victimized to being the victim.

So we need to be very thoughtful about how we intervene. It cannot simply be about intervening after the fact, We have to focus on smart approaches, including prevention. We have get this early and keep it from escalating and stop this harm from happening and research fortunately gives us some guidance there. There have been four peer review studies conducted over the last 12 years which have highlighted that the use of restorative practices reduces victimization of bullying and cyberbullying. And those studies showed that where there's meaningful, faithful implementation involved through restorative practices you have fewer incidents of violent behavior, aggression, overall violence and bullying in schools. So Councilor Mejia I know you have pushed on restorative practices in our school before it's time to resume that push because the research shows that is an important intervention.

But I also want to point out that those restorative practices, mediation, conflict resolution and trauma-sensitive learning models are already required under state law. Mass General Law Chapter 71, Section 37 and 3 quarters requires those as a way to reduce school exclusion But if we were really buying in and abiding by them, I believe that we wouldn't have these issues of bullying because those are also best practices for addressing bullying. We need accountability to ensure the BPS is following the law there. We also have a state bullying statute, Chapter 71 Section 37-0 which requires school staff members to immediately report any instance of bullying or retaliation for reporting bullying, to conduct an investigation and take action. Where is the documentation of those investigations and the actions that are taken? I believe that should be public facing.

Every parent, every community member and you all should have access to those investigations And one other point that I really want to address quickly, if I may. And this is a Councilor Flynn's point. To what degree is law enforcement being used as a response to bullying? We don't know. I went to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's website, and I looked at 24-25-0, and it says that Boston has zero school based arrests Referrals to court. And we know that is simply not true. For years, we have tracked this data. Boston always reports zero. Chapter 71 Section 37P requires it annually no later than August 1st Schools are supposed to be reporting the number of school-based arrest citations and referrals to court. We are supposed know the number times law enforcement is being called into our schools, and we don't have that information.

There are some within BPS who believe that they don't have to because that requirement is within the SRO statute. I personally disagree, but if that's the loophole that is being exploited to not have transparency this body should file an ordinance to close that loophole so we know and understand just how much police interaction is happening in our schools. This is about transparency, it's about everyone having the right to know and about taking best practices legally we're supposed to already be doing in making sure that they're done. Thank you.

Can you tell us SOSRO so For folks who don't know the acronym, SRO.

Oh, School Resource Officers. So Boston does not have school resource officers in their schools but To the extent that police are still being called, we should know how often are they being called? What is the interaction? Are they being arrested and what's happening because again it's just transparency so that we know. How can we talk about school safety If we don't know the degree to which police are or aren't being involved,

I said three minutes because I knew all of y'all were going to go over. I should have said a minute.

Thank you. Good afternoon Chair and members of the Council. My name is Tatiana Sofia Bigault, and I serve as the Executive Director at MASCOSH Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health. Now let me really reintroduce myself So we can all get acquainted. I am the daughter of Pablo Antonio Boudiouk, Lebanese man raised in Argentina. Daughter of Teresinha dos Santos Rodrigues de Antonio, Brazilian national inherited from Portugal and Spain. And I'm a proud mother of Sofia Jamile Antonio Peruvian born and David or Davie Bernard, US born. Immigrant to my core. Now, used to bullying from different nationalities raised to be resilient and a vicarious advocate for the little child left behind in every new school, in every table where snacks were denied

with every petty comment about shoes I didn't have or a carved made-up chef's bow handmade so by my mother. So, with that in mind, I want to help you reconcile data And I also want to reconcile my experience and why I am so fiercely advocate for every single child and parent here. A, I'm a parent B, I am also expert in childhood development So let's work on that. Worker safety and health begins with the intersection of all healthy minds, healthy bodies, and healthy schools. The schools are workplaces where educators Paraprofessionals, custodians, cafeteria workers and other staff. They are also where young people develop expectations about dignity, authority, belonging and the right to speak up when something is wrong We cannot build safe workplaces while allowing intimidation and humiliation to become ordinary parts of growing up.

I am asking Boston to make bully prevention a funded public health priority supported by social-emotional learning, early intervention and carefully implemented restorative practices. You're going to ask why? because we know what to do and how to do it. So, we're going to break it down for you. So the Massachusetts evidence base demands our attention similar to my colleague I'm gonna give you guys data so you can elaborate moving forward According to the Department of Public Health in 2023 Massachusetts Youth Health Survey, 45% of the middle school students reported bullying, cyberbullying in previous years. Amongst high school students approximately 25% reported bullying. The burden was especially pronounced among the non-binary, youth transgender special ed or special needs students with disabilities and nearly 75% of the non binary in other genders and middle school students reported bullying or cyberbullying.

These findings are statewide findings, but they should be and they should call for Boston's urgency. We are the blueprint for the rest of the state. We should do better. We have more resources. and we have one of the brightest minds here. These disparities must guide us where to invest Well, I see this more. NAMI Massachusetts fact sheet compiled using data available in March of 2025. So the reports that 14% of the children ages 0 to 17 has experienced at least two adverse childhood experiences that also report approximately one school psychologist for every 686 public school students. which in reality, the recommended ratio is 1 to 500. So we are already in a shortage. So we must match of expectation of schools with the staffing needed to meet them.

I'm only validating their statement. We did not combine, we did not rehearse. So Massachusetts DPH, the Department of Public Health HEAL framework explicitly emphasizes on the prevention violence before it begins. String, the young people skills supporting healthy relationships and improving the community conditions to protect. And it is framework recognizes intervention after harm. What my colleague just stated is precisely that. We are funded by DPH, we do it, we have seen how it works and you will hear my youth they are far more brilliant than my experience can actually dictate Now, social-emotional learning belongs with a strategy. It's teach practical skills and recognize. So my call of action it will be first fund the sustained prevention Support the recurrent social-emotional learning, anti-bullying in education, digital citizenship, bystander skill.

Paid training for school staff include accessible multilingual family engagement and community organizations with trusted relationships and amplify the current peer leader training model that has worked for MASCOSH or Teens Lead at Work. Second, Make early help accessible and prevention the standard, not remediation. Third, establish a consistent response to harm I will actually call Council Member Flynn. If you want to have a steering committee, we're happy to support you on that. Now, fourth give young people and workers a meaningful role. Include students, families, school employees unions disability advocates and community partners in designing this assessment If it isn't for us, do it with us. Now fifth measure safety rather than simply counting punishments Request a coordinated implementation plan for 90 days.

Identify responsible agencies, staffing needs, costs and milestones. Seek annual public reporting on the student reporting bully. Then again, everybody has said already I'm just amplifying and replicating. On behalf of MassGosh team group advisory and every young representative we bring today We welcome the opportunity to work alongside each and every one of you to ensure that this becomes a new norm. Thank you.

Okay, Kia, don't be trying to go over your three minutes because I will definitely. That's it. Three minutes! I keep saying that. Y'all just... The more you talk the less questions we're going to ask just so you know. and colleagues get your questions got three minutes for questions and that's it go no there we go now we can all right um apologies for my

I'm also in the process of becoming a parent myself in Boston Public Schools. Yeah, I'm adopting my 14 year old little cousin who's involved in the system and from California. So I've been dealing with that a lot, so hearing a lot of the testaments from our parents also does worry me now that I'm considering Boston Public Schools for my little cousin. But let's get started. So good afternoon, Council. Councilor Mejia, members of the committee and other community members here and our Beja Coalition members, Mascots and Citizens for Juneau Justice. I am Kiel McClay, Executive Director of BEJA the Boston Education Justice Alliance. I'm a BPS alum as well as former student rep on the Boston School Committee. I'm here because students cannot learn, thrive or reach their full potential in environments where they do not feel safe, respected and protected. And we have to be honest, student safety is inseparable from how our institutions respond to racism, bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct.

In 2016, when I was starting my stint on the Boston School Committee, a federal civil rights investigation found that Boston Latin school mishandled black students' complaints involving racial slurs and threats of lynching. This is not a simple conflict between students It was a failure of institutional accountability. But this conversation cannot stop at anti-black racism. Latino students and families must also be protected from harassment, xenophobia, bias based violence and Vice. Every student deserves the same protections regardless of their race, ethnicity, language or immigration background. We must also confront sexual misconduct in our schools. In 2024, Boston Public Schools investigated serious allegations of students on student sexual mis conduct and bullying at the Gardner Pilot Academy This case raised troubling questions about how school leaders responded when students report harm and whether institutions fail Failures allow the harm to continue.

National data reinforces the urgency, and one of the most recent reports from the CDC in 2024 45.9 black high school students had experienced racism in schools. Meanwhile, Boston 25 Investigates reported 131 BPS students were disciplined for sexual assaults between 2013 and 2022 including six to nine blacks 58 Hispanic students and only three of them being white students. Those disciplinary figures are not a measure of all assaults, but they demand scrutiny of student safety investigative practices and racial disparities in discipline. We must protect survivors, hold those responsible accountable and ensure our responses do not reproduce the inequalities we are trying to dismantle. This means moving beyond policies on papers

This means accessible multilingual reporting systems, trauma-informed support, protection from retaliation, timely investigation and transparent reporting on outcomes. We also need meaningful student and family As a former student representative on the school committee, I know young people are not simply recipients of school policy. They have essential insight into their own experiences and must help shape the systems designed to protect them. Beja calls on the Boston Public Schools and the City Council to establish measurable standards for prevention and accountability, evaluate how school policies affect different student populations, and ensure families can report harm and access student support in their preferred language. We should not have to wait for federal investigation, a public scandal or family going to the media before student safety becomes our priority. Safety is not a privilege. Student dignity is not negotiable and accountability is not an option.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Good job. All right, so I am going to each of my colleagues just because we have It's a non-traditional and I just I want to note for the record before anyone starts You know, creating scenarios that do not exist is that we want to make sure that we get through this hearing and we have a big panel of community advocates. We have the admin panel and then we have And so we want to make sure that we honor the youth. And they're the ones that we really want to center a lot of this conversation with, but we've got to get to them. Some of them are on their way from school, so I just want to honor time. and keep everyone on time. So you each get three minutes for your questions, and I'm going to wave my questions so that we can keep on time just so you all know. And I'm gonna go in the order of arrival. So it's Councilor Murphy followed by Flynn

Fitzgerald, and then Culpepper. You each get three minutes. Councilor Murphy you have the floor.

Thank you for your testimony it's important to hear it and get it on the record Some of this I said in my one-minute opening statement, but I just want to reiterate that what I want from this hearing is a clear explanation of why BPS fought for years to keep thousands of sexual misconduct records from the public. How reports are and were investigated, and what was done to protect our students. To me that's the most important part. BPS cannot keep hiding behind student privacy to avoid accountability. I do agree wholeheartedly that protecting students' identities is essential, but we can while giving real answers to tough questions. That can't be a reason for not giving answers. When incidents are missing from the data, how can families or this council evaluate whether BPS is responding effectively? I raised these concerns back in 2023. I said, I had a 17 F out with about 1600

Sexual misconduct reports that had no explanations, and now we're hearing thousands of reports without any explanation. So to me some questions maybe really to you is What immediate protections do you feel, and I think some of you already said this in your statements but are available while an investigation is pending including classroom on buses school activities There's many times students are outside of their classroom teacher's eyes. How do you feel as parents who have gone through this? And maybe the answers aren't, but or what protections would you have hoped were there and maybe would be a better way to ask that.

Maybe having, teaching some type of curriculum about abuse and what abuse looks like in reporting abuse inside. And telling the kids that it's okay to report abuse

How would you rate it? Well, as I already stated in my... You know we teach our kids say no to drugs. Stay away from strangers. Stay in school. We teach them about what's a good touch or bad touch so in my child's case she did Thank you very much. who are working with them to cover it up. So, it's reported, it there but if nobody is making an incident report calling the police anything like that then This is why the numbers are off when we talk about the data because the kid told, we know that. But if the adult who's supposed to report that to the proper authorities is not doing that because they're covering for their colleague,

I think that they have more immunity. They feel like they're protected and no one's taking accountability for certain things that have happened.

And then I would also add to what you were saying, like there's no follow-through. It sounds like there is no follow through. Like once you reach a certain point, you can't get any further past that and without—there's no accountability in transparency. And then I wanted to add in also, in terms of the buses having qualified bus monitors. There needs to be supervision on the bus When you talk with the school about it, the school is like well that's not our responsibility. We used to have our bus monitors on the bus but then now BPS doesn't want our bus monitor on the buses and they have their own But they are not qualified. They're not trained. And then, they're not even on the buses. If you have a child who then they're assigned to But then on the other buses that they don't have that assignment, there's no bus monitors and you can follow them in traffic and you see them throwing stuff out the window. They're jumping on top of each other fighting.

It's a lot of us and the bus driver can't possibly manage that. So I think having like supervision because as parents we would not be able to do that with our children Could you imagine driving through traffic and you see it wouldn't be tolerated.

So thank you council me here for my extra seconds. I'll just end with the statement that This past budget cycle though, the BPS budget passed. I didn't support it but you know hundreds of teachers many of them paras that we're going to be working with non-verbal students bus monitors Cafeteria support were cut from and that doesn't help this situation at all.

No, thank you. So I just want to know for the record two things one is that I let my colleagues go longer than the one minute opening and two, I've let them go longer in their questions. So I hope you understand that we're trying to do our best to manage all of this so because this is such an important topic so I appreciate everybody's patience. Councilor Flynn, you have the floor.

Thank you Madam Chair. Murphy referenced a 17F, which is basically a request for information from the city council to the city administration. We filed that hoping to get the data on bullying, sexual assaults, harassment of students. We never got that. It was denied. Our request was denied There was a reporter that went to, had to go to court recently and he got the information basically we were requesting. He got it from Suffolk Superior Court and it highlighted About 2,000 assaults, bullying, sexual harassment, sexual violence against student on students, teacher on students. but that data would not have been public without this report going to court.

But the information should've been given when myself and Councilor Murphy asked for it several years ago We're not helping people. We are not helping students, we are not The BPS community when we deny that there's a problem. We have to acknowledge that there is a major, major problem and deal with it transparently but to say that we don't have a problem and deny everybody the access to the information. I believe this information should be public, as I said in my opening statement, making sure that we take out the person's name or any identification. Identification information on a child. But before we are able to solve the problem, we have to know that there is a problem and there's 2,000 incidents. These aren't isolated cases.

And a lot of these cases don't get reported as well. I listen closely to every single word from the public testimony And as a parent, I understand the trauma you and your family are going through. Especially students with disabilities, nonverbal children They go to school because they need services and an education, and they weren't getting that. They weren't in a safe environment. But I do think you come to the city council for results, for answers. Because someone asked what about Fougeot Child? What would you do about it? I think you did. What I would do about it is I would go directly to the superintendent if it was my child. But not everyone can do that.

That's why you come to the city council, to get some justice for your family and it shouldn't take A court case. at Suffolk Superior Court to understand that we have significant problems. We need to listen to the mothers that are expressing themselves perfectly here, eloquently here about their children and the trauma Their children are going through because we as a city did not support them. We have to make sure that these children and these BPS families are treated with respect and dignity, and they're not getting it. You're not going it. And I think you hear at the city council for some support, for some justice. And I think we have a responsibility, maybe a moral responsibility to do our best to support these mothers and support these families and children.

Thank you Madam Chair.

Thank You Councilor Flynn I'm going to move on. What I love about the work that I do is that every single mom that is here, I know personally and I have worked with. So to me, I am no stranger to this conversation This to me is personal. As a survivor myself and as a mother, I know how hard it is to show up and fight for our kids. And so this is not politics for me. We're here to listen and hopefully It's not just about this, this, and this. We need to get to a place where we're going to deliver. And that's it. That's the bottom line. Today is done. We're walking out of here with some solutions. I am tired. of Hearing, blah, blah. I want to know what it is that we're going to do about it and how we're gonna fight for those things. And that's it.

If I could address one piece. Councilor Flynn, you mentioned students with disabilities and we're looking for solutions There's a dear colleague letter from the United States Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. It focuses exclusively on bullying, Thank you for joining us. And it says that any time a child with a disability is bullied, that should immediately trigger that IEP team to meet Determine the impact of the bullying and if that child's needs are greater in the aftermath, the IEP should be adapted to help so whether that child isn't showing up and misses time and they're behind or there's a traumatic impact. When a child with a disability is bullied, it bears the brunt of that.

We have to figure out how do we work with that child's plan to ensure they don't fall behind based upon that. Now, dear colleague letters are released by our federal government to be advisory There's nothing preventing at the city level using that to craft an ordinance or a policy that would then guide what our school system does. That's an example, there are solutions that are out there I just believe they need to be implemented here at the city level that we can then use those for accountability. I just wanted to address that

I just want to note for the record, your time was more than five minutes. Just because we got some answers in just so that anybody who's paying attention. I just wanna note for a record, Councilor Fitzgerald you have three minutes.

Thank you, Chair. I don't want to take up too much time but I just want to say thank you and a profuse apology for what folks have had to go through with this. I ask you to forgive my nature. My question will be a very procedural one because I know we want to get out of here with some solutions, but I just wanted you to know that again as a parent of three BPS kids who are just reaching that age where I'm going to be concerned about bullying and other activities myself. It's certainly not the hearing you want to be at, right? What is your understanding of the procedures and protocols that's supposed to happen after a bullying incident or sexual assault incident? And what do you understand those procedures and protocols to be, and where do you think they went wrong? I just want to make sure. Or what was skipped, missed or not even brought up to begin with in what you saw in your issues? You did touch upon some of that.

You kind of just answered a little bit that when you answered from the last question, but that was sort of my question for this and that's all I have. Thank you chair.

I'll quickly state the law and get out of the way so the parents can speak Chapter 71, Section 37 of the Bullying Statute. It's embedded with words that matter immediately and promptly. So a staff member shall immediately report Any instance of bullying which then triggers the principal or their designee to promptly conduct an investigation. So as a lawyer who's represented parents like this At times when I've gotten involved, I've seen, okay, here's a bullying intervention plan. We're going to change kids' schedules to keep them from interacting. It shouldn't take a lawyer to have that happen Every single incidence of bullying should have that same urgency of immediate reporting and prompt investigation. I think these parents' stories show that that's not happening.

Advocacy perspective, what we have seen because we get the youth after they go to school and they come back. They don't trust the system is a system failure, is a structural failure, it's a demand failure. It's a preparedness failure. Is a stigma, is cultural issue. It goes beyond. They should have a trusted adult to go and confide in they don't When they go to the pier, the pier is not prepared. or have not been given the tools and the skills or soft skills necessary for training. And there is no culture of comprehensive sort of adult, so a problem is only a problem when it has a solution. You have stated the problem We don't have to find out the problem, Mr. Flynn. You have said 2,000 you have a number and we have the data to back it up And we have the solution. They are actually saying the solution, if we want to decrease recidivism that's what we say in criminal justice reform right? We want to decrease recidivism of a client.

Now we have financial repercussions of what it costs, what does that cost to a whole family, to a worker? So it's a whole lot more. It's about staffing, it's about training, it is about comprehensive.

It's all about having the proper people to be able to work. My son was assaulted and he had his head put in a wall by a teacher of prayer who was unlicensed or had an expired license. Where's the failure there? Who is held responsible? So... My son for a whole year didn't want to go to school. I work, I have three other children. I'm the sole custodian parent, full custody of all my children. I have to work, I have be able make an income so I need school. I need to be able to believe in the school I was a Boston public school children. I loved school. I don't understand what has happened in the Boston public system, the failure, the thing...I don't

Maybe you guys can explain better to me, but a lot of things are being swept under the rug. DCF is being used how this young lady because it was used against me. They failed to report anything Okay? They... To me, certain individuals that have the knowledge of doing things because they feel immunity in what say because they work under the Boston public school system um they feel like they are allowed to do certain things that there are no repercussions or an accountability to doing certain things how children are being raped bullied A lot of the people there, they know that there's bullying going on and they don't report it. He said a lot of things are being just not

and then the adults are not saying nothing, they're not speaking up but they can go and call and file a 51A on the concerned parent that's coming in and is very maybe upset. Maybe cussing at them, maybe having a parent moment. Why? They're expecting the school to do their job, and they're not doing that. And then I feel a lot of families that are low income or minorities, are being targeted also. Which that's terrible. I feel like the system has failed Boston Public School System. There has to be a lot of things changed in your school system and you guys have the funding to do so, okay? And your children are attending. You need to make sure they know that the teacher who's there is not a pedophile, is not child predator. That they're licensed.

The people who are caring for children with disabilities that they actually care, that they're not just there for a check also but make sure that their paid because guess what? They're not being paid properly, also.

Thank you. All right, to answer your question, Councilor, because I think you asked what is our understanding of procedures or what are we looking for the schools to do? That's simple to answer as this parent said, their job. We're not asking for our kids to be treated with special circumstances or treated like they're the prince of some island or princess Some Island, we're just simply asking that they feel safe. That they are getting a proper education and if for whatever reason that incidences like this do arise, that we deal with it accordingly. So my understanding would be just what this gentleman said. I mean there are federal laws the FERPA laws that protect our kids There are policies, even if it's not a law that the school gives you a handbook at the beginning of the year. So again this is their words right?

I wrote a quote that I want to read really quick because she brought it up. I stood here and I testified for the fiscal year 23 BPS budget, like I literally stood there and I testified. This is before anything happened with my child so I know for a fact you know following up with that The fiscal year 23 BPS school budget was a record of $1.33 billion in funding to support students at BPS. This is not parents speaking this, A quote that I'm reading is public information. So if this money is to support students at BPS, then the question should be why is my child at home right now getting denied education? because like a lot of the parents sat here and said if we were to do that by choice where I was just lazy don't want to get up put my kid in school there's consequences for that they come in and they don't take DCF doesn't take one child

I'm a mother of seven. My first three are adults, so they can't touch them but my other four you know amazing the one i'm talking about the two that was You know, in school with her. And then I also have a one year old child. So that's the one that had the heart surgery. So why should all of my kids be taken? Right? Like I'm a parent standing here crying for help to get my child educated. Right? And I continuously have to deal with DCF, and not just DCF. The school goes and files CRAs too. Oh the kid missed this many days or this many day but when I'm trying to set up a meeting All I want is a safety plan in place for you to assure the return of my child. How are you going to keep her safe moving forward? I think that I'm allowed to do so. You know, and yes there are times. I can admit that a lot of y'all know me for that. I Can admit that yes, there's times that I've raised my voice this time that I cost but again as a parent

Saying this to another parent, you said you have three. If your daughter walked home and broke down and told you, Daddy, would you be happy about it? No. Would you go, oh sweetie, let's go on to the school and let's ask a few questions. It's human nature for you to be upset. Sure. They have to deal with kids that are upset. Kids that are crying, kids that have emotional behavior all kinds of things so if you want to be technical they're trained Thank you for watching. Again, he didn't have a license either. When I did go on DESE to do my little homework and the principal because it's really her who didn't report the incident why would the teacher tell him so? It's the principal she came from another school and was the acting principal Two weeks prior to that because she was just on the news for a different incident with another kid at a different school.

It's about them being in a union and they just move them around like pinballs the minute something happens to cover this up. And when you get parents like me that say, no, no. I'm here because I'm smarter than the average B. The veil's coming off and we're going to expose all of this. I got to get my kids taken. I've got to stand in court. They use everything they know that you care about against you I'm not a bad parent, I'm just a traumatized parent who's still crying for help because this is yes the incident didn't happen in this school year but the effects of it My family has no money. We're still struggling. Y'all don't know what it's like to get up. I have to go to the sub shop and go get napkins just to have tissue in the house. Y'all don't know about things like that. So I want to know about results, not about policies. We all know that. And if we don't, we can read it and learn it by the end of the day.

Thank you. I know this is hard, and I know Council Culpepper you've been very patient waiting for your turn. And these are the hardest hearings to facilitate because We have to hear things that sometimes make a lot of people feel uncomfortable. But the truth is, you can't deny the truth of somebody's experience and so it's hard to rush anyone So I just want you to know that it's not because I want to do that. It's just procedurally we do have time constraints here, so just want to acknowledge that. So Councilor Culpepper? You have the floor and then we're gonna move on to the admin panel, and then the youth panel. Okay?

Thank you Madam President, Madam Chair for bringing this important hearing and for today's hearing. I want to also thank the parents and the panelists to come, the educators, families, members of the public who participate in this discussion. Every student Boston Public Schools deserve to feel safe, respected, supported in their learning environment. Bullying, sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual misconduct can have lasting consequences for students' mental health. And that's what I heard from you, their academic success and overall well-being. It is critical the BPS has clear accessible reporting procedures, effective prevention strategies and appropriate support system for students who experience harm. Students or families must have confidence that when they report an incident their concerns will be taken

We also need to ensure that students who experience trauma are supported rather than punished for their behaviors or academic challenges resulting from their trauma. This requires adequate school-based resources, properly trained staff, meaningful communication with families. And from my perspective Much of our community is trauma. Just from the violence in our community, our entire community has trauma. I get traumatized from dealing when we were in this street dealing with the young folks and their violence was at its height And so when we think about it, we need to ensure that students who experience trauma, that they're supported, that their behaviors and academic challenges resulting from the trauma. This requires adequate school-based resources Properly trained staff and meaningful communication with families.

I look forward to discussing this, how it can strengthen accountability, improve prevention and response efforts and ensure that every student in Boston Public Schools has a safe and supportive learning environment. I know my time is passing quickly, I just want to ask some questions From each of you. Madam President, if I may just ask the questions of each of them and then they can answer. Well, let's be fair about it now. They had a lot of time. The timer wasn't even on I just want to get through these questions. I want to ask these parents these questions, and then they can answer them.

Do whatever y'all want. Y'all do it anyway so go ahead.

Thank you. That's not true. Monica? Are you telling us that all you need is a safety plan to ensure that your child would be safe and you could bring your child back to school?

That's a yes or no.

That was true at one time before, you know, we got where we're at now. What do we need to do to get your child back to school now?

That's a question. I'm going to ask each parent the question I have, then we'll come back to you. That's your question, Monica. Tia, what needs to be changed? You talked about change. What needs to Asterix, your question is from the state laws you gave me Boolean chapter 71 section 37-0 for reporting chapter 71 Section 37P There was one of those laws that I didn't get. What was it?

So, thank you, Councilor. 37-0 is the state bullying statute. I got that. Chapter 71, 37- P subsection D is the school based arrest reporting.

There was the first one, you gave one that I didn't get. And then your question is can you finish talking about restorative practices, talk about medication, Mediation, Trainer Sensitive Learning Models and there was one more I didn't get.

Chapter 71 Section 37 H and 3 quarters. And it's mediation Conflict Resolution, Restorative Justice, Collaborative Problem Solving and Trauma Sensitive Learning Models. All of which are required as a part of that statute. And the statute's intent was, let's reduce its suspension and exclusion of kids who were having traumatic behaviors But those same best practices are affirmed by the research as being highly effective at reducing bullying and victimization. I got that part.

And the other thing, can you give us a copy of that Dear Colleague letter? If you can provide us a copy of that.

I would be more than happy to provide that to Councilor Mejia and everyone.

Great, thank you. Yes. I want to hear from Monica and then from Tia and... Keel, I wanted to... I know you don't have them now but I'd like to see what your standards for prevention and accountability look like in your opinion. I know that you don t have them when you get a chance Through the chair, if you would just provide them to us.

Just say yes. Thank you. Y'all need to learn how to show up in these spaces.

What needs to happen to get your child back to school?

At this point... Could you give her the mic please?

At this point, Councilor Culpepper due to just the trauma in the arm that I mentioned she had surgery. She ultimately ended up having to have surgery because of the 11 dislocations. She had surgery back in June and is still recovering, doing physical therapy twice a week. She has two different therapists and she's doing those each twice a weeks as well as the therapeutic mentor. To answer your question, at that time would it have sufficed to get her back in and have her have a sense of normalcy amongst her peers and things? It probably would've helped. But her mental health continued to decline and her physical health continued So where we're at right now, a tutor would be best or if we were to get her back into school not such a huge Let's talk about this more.

After this. Now, Councilor Culpepper, now you're pushing me.

You don't want me to get out my... No, I don't wants you to get up out your seat because you don't...

Exactly, right now you are like, you are pushing it right now. Go ahead Tia and that's it.

There it goes. So what needs to change? I would say prevention, accountability, proper investigations In my situation with the physical bullying, the sexual misconduct on the buses, again I mentioned earlier having bus monitors to supervise that are qualified to be on the I think also when it comes to the prevention, we need to be working on prevention strategies as well as how do we handle when stuff has actually occurred? What happens after that? to make sure that this is not happening, like the recidivism where it's happening over and over again. Like my daughter every year has had an issue and she's only eight years old and she started at that school in kindergarten and it doesn't make sense that she every year has issues over and over again, just with a different child. So I think even when you request the tapes to be pulled

to find out when a child has reported being attacked. Sometimes you don't get those tapes and then those are destroyed, they only have them for a certain amount of time So even for them to do a proper investigation, they can't do that when they don't even have the tapes or recording. Or when something happens with the bus drivers, my daughter was forcefully told to get off the bus and walk home by herself if she's eight years old. And there is domestic violence, so there are safety concerns there. And I raise that as an issue. And the only investigation they do is they ask the bus driver what happened. I said, if someone put their hand in a cookie jar they're not going to say that they put their hands in the cookie jar. That's not an investigation to find out why he forcefully told my daughter to walk home and I was right there and he just took off and told her to get off. So that's not safe, I mean a child died last year, five-year old died last here run over by the school bus so when one life lost is too many, one life impacted is too

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

That's right. Tariq, get your boy. Get your boy out my chamber right now. I'm going to play that tape over and I am going to do a tee time on your behavior. In my chamber. All right, we're moving on. We really do appreciate you all. Do not go. because I'm sure y'all are going to have some questions. And I'm going to ask the administration to make their way down Thank you all. I know it was not an easy thing to do for those folks who were here to speak truth to power the way that we did, but we really do appreciate it and sorry that it took so long The last time we had this scheduled, they were having the World Cup situation outside. And I did not want that to compete with what was happening inside here so I do appreciate your patience as we rescheduled this. So thank you so much for showing up and we look forward

hearing from the administration, and then thinking about a working session for what are we going to do about it. Like Leon and I talked about having a dashboard, we have some ideas because we're not gonna keep having these conversations like I'm tired of that.

The crisis action team?

Yeah, we talked about this in our pre-session so we're gonna be bringing in some folks too actually come up with something actually tangible. So thank you.

Thank you.

All right, come on BPS! You're the next contestant. on the hearing is right.

This is my organization. Let's go. All right.

Okay. All right. What I am learning is we always lead with community voice and then we go to the administration But then by the time the administration goes so much some of my colleagues are not here to ask questions So, I don't know. I think I might have to switch it up a little bit because Oftentimes, so much of the answers are right here with the administration. And so I think I'm going to have to switch things up just a little bit sometimes because we need a little more time with you all. All right, so how much time do y'all need?

Whatever you all need. I obviously want to get to the youth. That's right.

Right answer. So do you guys want to go just into questions, or do you want to show us a little bit about what you've been up to? How do you how do you wanna use your time?

I think I wanted to level set I think we should start with introductions. Cory McCarthy, Chief of Student Support.

CHRISTINE TREVISONIER, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE SUPERINTENDENT FOR SPECIALIZED SERVICES.

Dr. Samuel Lupina, Deputy Superintendent of Operations for Boston Public Schools. I think, Councilor, we'll just start off with some brief opening remarks and then we can jump into questions.

We're here to set the stage for whatever makes you most comfortable.

As a Chief of Student Support, The bullying piece, the issues of bullying, the reporting that falls into my purview. I want folks to know, you all know that I really appreciate that you're bringing attention to an issue that's at the heart of public education. Every child has a right to feel safe, respected and protected. And our work in student support is we try to function as if we are the union for the youth. My leadership in that time since 2024 and being in the role reflects that. I want to begin with the students of the families who have experienced bullying, harassment or fear in our schools. I want you to hear clearly that we hear you and your experience matters.

No child should have to convince an adult that their safety deserves any of our attention. I was, you know many of us spent our career working with young people in classrooms and schools. And now with student support at Boston Public Schools and through all those roles We're guided by the belief that everything must begin and end with care. And not a slogan, but care that a student and family can actually feel. And that is pronouncing the teacher who notices a child who is becoming withdrawn, the counselor who makes room for the child to talk honestly. The school leader who calls a family and listens without defensiveness, and takes responsibility for what happens next. and perhaps more importantly, really checking back after the investigation to make sure that the harm has stopped. You know when a family reports bullying it's not

Treated as a complaint, they are trusting us with their children, with their child. And we must honor that through action BPS has clear policies and resources. Students and families can speak to a trusted adult, use our safe space in bullying prevention hotline or report concerns through district systems. School leaders then are responsible for investigating these allegations, communicating with families and protecting students as concerns were being reviewed. Through Succeed Boston, school counselors, social workers, restorative practices teams. And I'll get into that. I think Mr. Smith alluded to that. They lead our prevention programs, and we also create opportunities for young people to talk at Succeed Boston, build empathy, learn responsible behavior and get help. That includes support for cyberbullying, which is critical.

It happens every day and that might be a whole other hearing and the digital spaces where much of our student life takes place, but a policy is not the same thing as safety. Completed report is not proof that a student feels protected. An investigation alone does not mean that harmful behavior has stopped, as we heard evidence by how people felt today. We have to ask if the child can ride a school bus without fear or in the bathroom without anxiety. And when our response falls short, we have to say so. We have to correct and follow through. If you know anything about this work that we've invested in, I've invested it personally, that's the way we operate. I believe in restoration and capacity of young people to grow and Restorative Practices.

In our, in BPS we refer to them as restorative justice practices is a distinction that I will get to. You know it's It can't minimize harm and replace safety with an accountability, right? I will say that we have improved our ability to be responsive. If you speak to families who have reached out, they've gotten a call back. They've gotten an action. I even went to houses personally and we are building, or we have built under the leadership of Valeria Miranda-Frederick, Jamila Baye-Grandson who's here to see a director succeed Boston. We have built Restorative Justice Practices Team and Safe & Welcoming Schools team.

We have eight, nine total individuals including the leadership who are... And this is when I first came back to the district Chairman Mejia, this is something that you were emphasizing. That team now have cohorts of schools who constantly work with School teams to interrogate practices that is not solely focused on something happening to the child. It has to work on the response, and it has to work with the individual who committed the harm. And I think that's something that is another conversation. Restorative justice practices is not a strategy we use when something goes wrong. It's a philosophy that informs how we build a community, address harm and hold people accountable. I want to be clear, this is not an absence of consequences when we are doing that. It's just

Restorative justice is what we believe, restorative practice is what do and restorative outcomes is what measure. And those members, and we're willing to meet with anyone You know I'm willing to meet and sit down with anyone, but we do have a certain practice of safe and welcoming school specialists who partner with school leaders on their designated needs on the implementation of the district's bullying prevention intervention. The bullying intervention specialists on the school-based level have to complete two day bullying prevention trainings in order to be in this role on a school based level. So this is on top of the restorative justice practices and safe and welcoming schools folks. Under the Boston Public Schools Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plan SSS-18, Superintendent Circular, we determine whether something is bullying through a formal investigation. Not because the student or parents uses the word bullying. We open up a full investigation.

The key distinction is not every conflict, argument and hurtful Interaction meets the definition of bullying, but every reported concern deserves a response. We have to respond to everything. and once again, I know I'm talking a lot but I'm level setting. Three primary factors we examined are power imbalance, repeated behavior and intentional and targeted behavior which I'm more than happy to get into. How the determination is made, we receive and document the allegations. Any staff member who becomes aware of possible bullying must report it immediately to the school leader or designee. Then it must be assessed immediately for safety and contacting families. That has to happen. Safety measures begin before the investigation concludes. Family notification is required within 24 hours, but it's immediately.

The schools then have to gather evidence, interview the targeted student, the alleged aggressor witnesses and relevant adults. And review the available documentation or digital evidence which digital evidence is always coming up these days. Apply the policy criteria, examine those three pieces. Is there power imbalance, repetition, targeted conduct, harmful impact or any protected class considerations? That means students with disabilities students who are experiencing, who tend to speak multiple languages et cetera. Document the findings and interventions under the superintendent circular, which I think you guys have access to. We can share. The school leader or designee must complete the investigation notify families within five school days. To follow through As a result, you implement the appropriate interventions.

Protect against retaliation which has been mentioned here and confirm whether or not the student feels safe and the concerning behavior has stopped. You know, one thing is an important distinction is not every harmful interaction between students legally qualifies as bullying but we still investigate. If you believe the numbers are high, they're based on referrals. But if the number was 10 it's still high because it should be zero and I recognize that. But the referrals are high because we have a stronger process. We have greater demand on a school-based level for transparency, and you know, we also want to make sure that When an investigation determines an incident was not bullying, it does not mean nothing happened. And that's another distinction.

A child may still have been humiliated, intimidated, threatened or made to feel unsafe and it is our obligation to that child To make sure that child does not disappear because an incident fails to meet a particular definition. That determination tells us how to classify the incident, our commitment to care and It has produced in that level and that intention, and that vehicle has allowed us to create spaces, additional spaces in the district where families could feel comfortable reporting these pieces. and many more. My lens has to be continuous improvement, and obviously we have some recommendations that's already been in place.

Under the leadership of Sam and Mary Skipper, I made some significant shifts around what we're doing. This is not an argument back and forth in terms of if this If we are, it's not us against these families. I need to sit down with every single person here if I have to but every single report I'll say these last two things. Every single report should clearly document whether bullying was substantiated, whether conduct occurred including conflict, harassment, retaliation or code of conduct violation. This is the only bullying I'm talking about what supports or interventions were provided, regardless of the determination. So it may be unfounded but you still may need an intervention or a plan. And who will follow up with that student and family, and when?

and I always appreciate when parents are vocal because, you know, I think the two strongest entities in the city are organized parents and organized young people. And we do have staff trainings that folks say what or think what staff is doing other than the two-day bullying piece. We have all staff trainings, we have new teacher hiring bully prevention training, Bullying Prevention and Intervention Specialist Training, which is a 12-hour training. Bullying prevention workshops for parents of students with disabilities, which makes me think, is our messaging strong enough so that our parents Do all of our parents get access? I know this happens. And before I go to my colleagues and answer any questions, you know, our impact will be found in how we treat people. It's been said, especially when they are vulnerable and need us the most. Every family deserves a response grounded in care and accountability. So I'm

I'm grateful that we could have this discussion and want to be a part of anything or any org that wants to do this work. I agree with Mr. Smith and the families, Restorative Practices is the way. We have invested in restorative justice practices, I wanna be clear. We've met with multiple people, Evelyn Aquino, Michelle, Native Americans who founded Restorative Justice Practices. We've met with teams and it is a five to seven year process. We are in year three to fully integrate our district. Right now, we have a cohort if you want to see or witness what that looks like how it feels the goal is for students yes to The goal is for us to understand that harm happens, but the responses. Just like we have to measure students sometimes by yes if they make a bad decision,

Do we create the conditions for them to not make that poor decision again? And that's us. That's me. I made so many bad decisions, I don't know how it got here but It's my job and our role to make sure that we are the people that I needed when I was growing up.

Thank you, Court, for that. And thank you, Councilmember Holston, today's session and hearing, and thank you councilmembers for joining us this evening. The only thing I'll add to what Chief McCarthy alluded to was just to thank the families for coming and sharing the experiences. And I also want to Personally just say that I'm sorry for their experiences and what they went through because just hearing the testimony just made my blood boil to know that we fell short in some of these situations. and our policies and procedures weren't effective there. And for the public here to know that if your child has been subject I also want to just state The response that we have been working towards over the last couple years has just gotten stronger based on the collaboration that we do with families and parents.

We are currently in the process of updating our code of conduct. And for those folks that know, we go through a cycle every three years where we're updating our Code of Conduct and we take very great intentionality in meeting with partners and caregivers, parents, students to give us feedback on our policies and procedures as it relates to that. As a district we're always looking at our practices see where we can do better from school support service work to operational work to coordinating with different partners. We always seek to get better and where we're falling short, you have our commitment to keep working towards that and we're open to meet with anyone here, any advocates here. I've known Leon for years in this work. Thank you, Leon. over the years and informing what we do differently. We'll continue to do that, so I also want to let the public know that where we do fall short and if our policy is not followed by certain staff, we will hold staff accountable for their errors in our policies. and we want to make sure we're looking carefully at licensures and certifications.

Staff are in different places with their certifications and licenses, so we take that very seriously as well and we'll continue to monitor that and get better with working with our staff to make sure they have the appropriate licenses. And if they're in the process of obtaining licensures, because there is a group of staff that are in those categories that we continue to support them as we want to make sure we have and maintain a diverse workforce. Lastly, I'll just say around some of our procedures I want to just kind of clarify that the way I would describe our response and protocols may be a little confusing, but I wanna make sure we look at it as like Some of our procedures have to run concurrently based on satisfying federal law in our state and local policies. What I mean by that is, Title IX dictates a certain specific set of requirements Our student support work, our code of conduct work follow certain state requirements and state laws. And Boston Police will follow up with any laws that they have to abide by as far as different infractions that go on.

So these different entities have to work concurrently and simultaneously. So as different things happen, Each of those little arms and legs have to be working in the same direction so that the right outcome can be made for families. So when an incident does occur, we want to make sure that immediately it's being reported addressed at the school level Safety plans are put in place, communications happening with families and we're stabilizing the environment in the classroom, in the school as itself, as a whole. And if we need to it need be in the community because we also know that some of this builds into the community and that's why we work closely with our partners outside We take that work very seriously in that arm. When we need to investigate Title IX investigation, there's a process for that. That occurs as well simultaneously while we're stabilizing the school, the students and families and holding appropriate folks accountable. Then we always are in consultation with Boston Police so in any of these instances When they occur, we constantly consult with Boston Police.

I'm not sure the quiet name of it, but they have a sexual assault unit that works closely with Chief Izzy Marrero and his team. The school unit has an arm that helps to support with that kind of work and we consult with them regularly and then there's a crimes against children unit that we work closely with very closely in certain matters for children under the age of 12. That working is constantly happening, so when you hear about our policies and procedures I would look at it and describe it as their concurrent processes that have to happen and each of the different arms that happen support the students and families in different avenues, in different perspectives. And that's what we'll continue to do. And again, we're open for feedback. We welcome feedback and disagreement. If folks have suggestions on how we can do better, we are happy to do better. I just apologize for all the Students that have had issues that have gone unresolved, but our intent and our commitment is to do that. I'll just close by sharing just one anecdotal example of just me personally. I was at the Murphy School last week and we were there for a National School Lunch event

While we were in line, there was a second grader crying and just crying and becoming emotional while she's in line. So unfortunately, I was the closest adult there and no one from the school was there who may have known this girl. So I took it upon myself to just get out, move from where I was, step right into the line. I introduced myself to her, told her who I was and started a conversation where she told me that she was crying because she was being bullied. I said, okay well thanks for sharing that with me let me call our school leader to discuss this with you so I flagged over the school leader he immediately came over And then I asked her what was going on, who were the people involved while the school leave was coming over. She told me two students' names and when the principal came over I was able to connect the principal with a student and they were able to address, he recognized the students right away. He kind of knew what was going on and he immediately said that he will call her parents and let her know what's going on that he'll follow up with them immediately after lunch, because those students were in the lunchroom at a time.

And then after that I stayed with the student, got in line with the students, connected with her, deescalated her sat with her and her friends, had lunch and got into a better space. And then the principal came over and provide a quick update to her and they were stabilized and there was a plan immediately developed. I plan on going back there next week just to check on the student and make sure she's okay. But that's a level of care you can expect from me, my team, my staff, and my colleagues every day. And where we fall short, we will hold people accountable. Thank you.

I'm going to be very brief. I am mindful of time and really would like to hear from the students as well. I think that we share the council's dedication to students, to safety, family, and support and ensuring that there's prompt resolution, appreciate so much hearing from the families. And again offer our sincere apology for anything that anyone experienced As my colleagues mentioned, we are boots on the ground for immediate action. We have all been to schools to respond to things, to support and to engage, and we're committed to this work We've put some systems in place, which I'm looking forward to talking to you about. And we're looking forward working with you to ensure that we meet the needs of all our students' families.

You want to say something else? I could tell you were going to say something, so.

So I've been around long enough and here in front of you all long enough to talk to enough young people especially in preparation Some of the pieces that I'm gonna mention are in the works. So folks don't wanna come here and just leave without action, right? I think number one like if there's going to be a subcommittee or task force who are happy to be on it I'm happy to talk to, it could be, it should be on multiple levels. It should be one for parents. There should be you all, right? I think that's important because I think there's a There's a gap in communication and what that through line looks like, but some of the four things I think we are currently working on and so on. And have been, especially in this sort of like redesign as relative to bullying prevention and our responses I believe we can strengthen our work in four meaningful ways.

And you guys, it's on the record so when you pull together hold us Thank you for joining us. Bullying and harassment of those pieces within the sports and athletics is something that happens, right? Looking at our locker rooms, extracurricular activities and other spaces where students build relationships in community. We've worked with EMIAA, have multiple students on the panels and their workshops, to lead workshops on anti-bullying. I think this one is the most important one especially given the temperature in their room today. I would like us to establish a 60-day family assurance protocol when bullying is substantiated We do that now, but...

with more emphasis and ensure that student continues to feel safe. Three, elevating student voice. We did an intervention one time to get more kids to come to school, and I had the young people lead it. Oh, I'm on the clock. Oops, sorry.

I thought you were going to say one thing. Oh no, you asked for it, you got it.

So creating more spaces for student voice.

Nah, that's it, nah.

Student voice and then measure accountability.

Okay, great because I thought you were going to say one more thing because my colleagues have been patiently waiting.

Sorry.

And then you went on and on and let me find out all of y'all after school detention. Flynn. I'm gonna give you five minutes, how about that? Fitzgerald, five minutes.

Thank You Madam Chair. Thank you to the BPS team that is here although I do disagree with With the comments made that you are being transparent, responsible and accountable. I don't believe that. I listen closely to the mothers in their public testimony in talking about their children and that's not their lived experience. They don't feel like BPS has been transparent, they don't feels like BPs is accountable and responsible I'm not going to sit here and tell you I agree with you if I disagree with you. Transparency BPS didn't want a lot of this information released to the public about sexual assaults.

In the opening comments, there were a lot about bullying but sexual assault wasn't really I am challenging BPS today that I don't feel confident they are being transparent, accountable. and responsible to all BPS families in students. My colleagues may disagree with me, but that's my opinion. We didn't discuss sexual assaults in your opening comments. We glossed over it. There's probably several hundred, could be thousands of us assaults that have taken place Thank you for your time.

I'm not happy about that. Consultation between BPS and Boston Public, in Boston Police Department consultation Where is the memorandum of understanding between Boston Police and Boston Public Schools that I've been advocating, right Sam? For three years to get it signed. Is that sign now?

It's signed on our end, but not on the Boston Police Department. However we are still operating under the...

But Sam, my point is as you know I want to see how we're consulting between Boston Public Schools, Boston Police. There's a memorandum of understanding that hasn't been signed yet that will state how BPS communicates with the public school system. That document hasn't been released. That documents has not been signed. Does the City Council deserve to look at that and review it? I think they do. Do parents deserve to look at it and review it? Three years. I've asked that question for three years. Where is that memorandum of understanding? And I always get the same answer. Pretty soon we're going to have it for you, Ed. I don't know what you mean by consultation between the Boston Public Schools and the Boston Police Department. I want to see it in writing.

I wanna know if there's a sexual assault on a school bus that the Boston police are contacted immediately. I don't think they are. I want to know if there's an assault at BPS that it's investigated, it's documented. Parents are called. There was one mother here of a special needs child that was nonverbal He couldn't express himself and tell his mother what was happening. So again, I'm going to push back on transparency, accountability and responsibility because I don't think we're doing that. And I am disappointed in BPS for coming here and just telling me that We are working on programs to address these issues.

How can we address the issues if you're not transparent about what the issues are? Sam, when am I going to get the memorandum of understanding?

I'm not sure, Councilor, because it's not with us at this moment. But like I mentioned earlier, we are operating within the guidelines of it. And to clarify what consultation means... Could I read it? Councilor, it's not executed yet so I'm not able to share that.

But Sam, it has been three years. I'm a former probation officer for nine years. I was in the Navy for 24 years. I know every word. I need to read it. Maybe I can provide some good suggestions, guidance based on my lived experience but I can't do that if you won't show me the document. If I did a 17F one, could I get it? I'm not sure, Councilor.

You can file it and I'll let the folks help us respond to that.

I want to be respectful of the time. I'm going to end my questions there. Madam Chair, I apologize for going over for 30 seconds. Thank you. I want to be respectful to you, to the committee, to my colleagues and to the young people that also want to testify. Thank you Madam Chair. I know, you have been.

Because I know what it's like to be inside this chamber. Fitzgerald, five minutes.

Mejia, thank you. Thank you all for being here. BPS. I do want to get to the youth, so I'll just ask the same question I asked the last panel. Corey, I think you did a good job of explaining at least under bullying what the current procedures and protocols are. But we didn't talk about—I do agree with Ed—we didn't and many more. The biggest misstep in some of these for the parents that feel that the process wasn't followed and you heard where they felt it wasn't What are you guys identifying as potential corrections to these procedures to be done? You said some things were in the works already, but do those necessarily address all of the issues that we heard here today?

and I relay that to both bullying and sexual assaults because I want to make sure I understand what the correct procedure or the procedure at least you are supposed to follow, what has been followed, what hasn't been followed and what are we working on to make sure that it's a complete protocol? Thank you.

Sure, so we can map out the Title IX process. We could talk about the code of conduct process and we can talk about consultation with Boston Police when sexual assaults or misconduct

I'll try to be brief. For Title IX, is anything related to sexual assault or sexual harassment Once it is reported, so typically it's reported either by the school, typically the school leader or a complainant. There's a phone number that the school or school personnel, there's also an email address. It's called title9 at bostonpublicschools.org. It on the website that a complainant can also file and we try to have immediate supportive measures. So within that first time of the report, we work with the schools to ensure that there are supportive measures and safety plan in place to make sure that there's a plan in places to support the child while we investigate. These are all required under the federal law. The school leader also reports to the parents so that they're aware of what's happening

It goes to the Title IX lead, the person in charge of the Title Nines, the coordinator. They will review it to determine if this is a Title IX or not, reach out to the complainant and the respondent What's happening, determine what happens next. And then it's a collaborative process. What's needed? Could be changing someone's schedule. We're afraid while we're investigating this, unless it's a serious situation, we deal with that immediately. It's worked with the complainant to make sure, is this enough for you? Do you agree with this? If it's special education students they work with the assistant director in special education to make It's aligned with all things in the student's IEP and related to the disability. And then there's a formal, if the complainant wants to go through with that process, there's

Thank you for joining us. and are really trying to get better at this year. The focus is that compassion when we're talking to families, and understanding the impact of this while we investigate for both Thank you for joining us. and I don't believe that we've been very good about communicating and letting people know where are we in the process, what's happening. Working closely with the schools, families will often go to the schools first because that's where they feel most confident and that is something that we put

Better in place at this time The only thing I'll add to that is like I mentioned earlier simultaneously while that's happening School and school staff is also addressing the matter from a code of conduct perspective so if there needs to be emergency removals, for example and many more. Thank you. and Office of Safety Services to make sure that they're providing them the most up-to-date information about the situation. And Izzy will, his team will consult with Boston Police around the matter just so they can give a heads up on what happened, what occurred and get their initial thinking advice on the matter as well, because if they need to be further police action that route can proceed as necessary. That's the only thing I would ask that. Again it's a concurrent process that happened between

Title IX, Code of Conduct and our consultation with Boston Police.

As far as bullying I think we have to understand that there's a Sometimes inherently there's a fractured trust between the community and the school system. And in effort to mitigate some of those issues, we have to build stronger relationships with families. Folks are more, families are more They will come forward more if they feel like they are working with credible messengers. If they feel that there are spaces where they could be honored and valued, I'm not saying they don't but All, but it doesn't always happen. I'm not going to sit here and say that it does. And then the next piece is really establishing like having stronger You can always tighten up your documentation.

Schools, the same reporting that is done for the found Bullying should probably, the same strategy should be applied to when it's not. That's something we could definitely look into but from a relational standpoint I think we have to look at how, and we are addressing that as well. We are working on a culture and climate improvement Um, guidance and framework that allows us to sort of see like what are the adult moves that needs to happen for kids to experience school better. and then being more inclusive of student voice so that they could be the credible messengers themselves The Boston Student Advisory Council is within student support and we're going to work with them to make sure that they are

are connectors in the school community, where they could sort of help students normalize and socialize how we report and interrogate bullying in the schools. And one thing that we did not mention is We mentioned bullying, but I think one of the pieces that we've been strong at is working with the actual person who committed the bullying. And We have invested in them as well, as far as like... volunteer work, job opportunities coming to our programs et cetera. And I think those are the areas you gotta strengthen that sort of fractured trust that exists.

Thank you. Okay just a statement to end it. I do just want to say that I heard it today, and I've heard it before in relation to BPS. And it's the comment that things get swept under the rug. I hear that used a lot with BPS so I just encourage you guys to understand that is the image That is out there and I hope in any future procedural protocols, external, internal whatever it may be please ask yourself you know looking back when future incidents occur and looking back on how past incidents that have happened Did we sweep this under the rug? Are we sweeping this under-the-rug because that is the lens at which a lot of people are viewing it and I think if we ask ourselves that before making the decision I think you guys will start to form the right policies and procedures and add to what is currently good to make sure we address some of the issues that we heard today.

I really appreciate that comment, and I appreciate that super helpful advice I also think, I should take a note on that point. That legally we're very limited on what we can share publicly especially when it involves some of these types of cases So, but I do hear you for procedures and policies outside the law can address that piece. We definitely will take that into consideration. So thank you. Appreciate that.

That's it.

Kenry, families. I just want them to know they could reach out every transparency side. That's my personal number in my email. and there's no one in this building that will tell you that I do not pick up the phone when they call.

That's true, and you pick up a call at any hour of the day and night and morning and you are out on these streets Corey And it is so unfortunate that you have to be inside that building, but we are so grateful that you are there because at the very least we can count on somebody to show up for our family. So thank you for that. All right, so I'm going to go on to my questions if y'all don't mind. I waived my first round and I know we have young people who have been patiently waiting. You could blame the adults that are here for having to wait longer but it's my turn now. and so I have some concerns around some of the disconnect because what when I heard from the families similar to what Councilor Flynn I talked about in terms of the what parents reported here based on what we hear from you all in terms your protocols, policies and procedures there seems to be a disconnect.

I'm just curious, how do you ensure that every incident is properly addressed? Why do cases fall through the cracks and then how do track All of these cases to ensure that the district is doing a good job. Like, how do you measure success? How do you know that you're doing a great job if what we're hearing here doesn't seem to align? That's one question. You're not answering it right now. The other question is what accountability measures, within the district to ensure that all cases investigated by BPS are fully and honestly investigated. That is something that I think is really important, and that I would like to get that on the record. Then I also am very concerned about the 51 A's that get reported on parents who feel retaliated against just because they're advocating for their children. That is creating a vicious cycle of harm and this one is particularly for Sam This is an operational thing. You're working with BPD.

I don't know how or what is happening, but a lot of our parents are ending up with cases that they should not have just because they're fighting for their children. And I just, I need to understand what that dynamic looks like because what it does is it creates an environment in which families do not feel safe even reporting things because they believe they're going to be targeted. that is manifesting more harm. And then I'm also curious about some of the ideas, we've been working in partnership because in our office we have a co-governance model Everything that we do is in collaboration with community. And we've been talking about establishing an oversight committee, in which we have families, people who are doing the work

living the realities working in partnership, in deep partnership with BPS not in conflict with or in confrontation of but in collaboration right to address some of these Thank you. What that appetite looks like in terms of real trust-building exercises here. So we'll have city council involved, we'll had BPS, we will have families, we have communities, we've organizations who are doing this work as an oversight community, as a real checks and balances to making sure that what we are saying, we're actually measuring and delivering on. That's the level of commitments that we're looking for from you all as we continue not want to have another conversation about another conversation. And then lastly, how will the recent personnel cuts affect support staff?

The task around preventing and handling these cases In the FY25 budget, the district received a $34,000 grant for bullying prevention and intervention. In FY26 there was $2,394 and that same budget for, and that was the same thing budgeted for FY27. How has the $32,000 budget decrease affected students. Like I don't know who got the money here but whoever understand how these dollars are impacting the outcomes I'd like to hear from you about that and That is all until I might be inspired to ask some more. Dale?

I'll take a stab at the ones that I believe I can answer, and then I'll defer you guys. As far as the accountabilities that are in place for staff that fall short of Implementing the procedures as we prescribe them and as they are trained in them, it would depend on their collective bargaining agreement with their managerial employees. So we have progressive discipline procedures in place for all staff. And what we would do is immediately investigate Thank you, Mr. Chair. National Incident Self. And based on that information of what we learned, we find out whether or not someone acted appropriately or not and then we would impose a range of employee discipline on the person

So everybody that's participating are BPS employees and associated with the district?

folks that are implementing our bullying, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct policies and everything we're here to talk about yes it would be pretty much mainly BPS.

So I would recommend we need an outside third party so to help support some of this work because Independent doesn't sound really independent where everybody is involved with BPS. That's why people always think that we're not being honest and everything's being swept under the rug because the people who are identifying or determining whether something was a misconduct. I just want to give you an opportunity to clarify that for me.

Well, like I mentioned collective bargaining requirements are at play here So in our opinion, the third party would be the collective bargaining group that these members may belong to.

Well who's protecting the child and the family?

It's our collective job too but both any members in the school with regardless of what union they belong to Anyone in the school building, it's their responsibility from the cafeteria manager to the custodian to the teacher to the secretary to the school leader to the school administration. So there's a bunch of people that I can describe as responsible and external central office.

Only just because my time is short, and we are here to listen to young people. I'm not going to keep going back and forth. I will be hosting a second hearing so I can further

I just wanted to add that in developing some of these policies we have worked with parents outside agencies and community members to support that. I know in particular with regards to bullying and students with disabilities, parents of students with disability were engaged to be part of the conversation in developing that. I would say it's something we always do perfectly but we have been trying to work A variety of outside supports and families to have that happen.

The question was, would you be willing to and open to having an independent oversight committee that is not handpicked by BPS, but that is independent of the district and creates opportunities for a different type of oversight.

I'd have to get more clarity on what you mean by that exactly.

We're going to create it together. That's the...

Let me just reiterate. I want to make sure we have a conversation about what that means and what that looks like because we do have a lot of forums, to the point that was raised earlier, where we do engage families on different aspects of our work.

Those systems are broken, Sam.

So we're willing to work with you to be part of those and make them better.

All right, just because my time. Go ahead.

Also when we talk about oversight I think it's important to work together but we really have to be mindful The policies around FERPA and Title IX, and discussing any individual specific students or complaints or active cases in the violation of FERPA.

I think it must be targeted when we are having those. Because I think oversight feels a little bit evaluative to folks, but however I'm willing to be on any committee rooted in action to problem solve. What I think sometimes, you know strategically is I think we have to lean in on the community a little bit more from a strategic standpoint. And then, to your other question, our goal is to live in the prevention space and not the responsive space. Mrs. Smith said like, It's the same thing with youth violence, right? But sometimes things feel a certain way that you end up in a constant state of responsiveness and we need to live in this space of preventative work. And then to your next question, as far as those funds, we are managing without the funds. They were used previously for trainings and stipends but we have a really good team.

Our team at Succeed Boston, we do what we can and understand that Those dynamics, if chosen otherwise other decisions could be made and we do not want to compromise people because we need the people. And then finally this swept under the rug piece I think over communicating is critical I think sometimes parents get annoyed that we're calling and we just want to know, like, we just wanna check in. I think we have to make that a common practice. Every conversation is an opportunity to lean in on support and resources or point them in the right direction in the same process.

Yeah, so I'll just note two things. One is it has to be rooted in restorative justice. I think whatever work we do is that. And then I just really realized that none of y'all answered my question around the 51A as an issue that is a big concern to me because parents are having their children literally snatched up just because they're protecting or trying to fight.

Well, I can add something here.

So could someone just address that?

All right, so as far as the 51As, right, I think the next stage of, and this is like across the city, across the country. The next stage of understanding cultural competency is infusing that into how 51As are are decided. And because when I say cultural competency, there are so many families from different places and we're so diverse that sometimes behaviors are interpreted as something that they're not, and it could be misinterpreted as harm. And I think we have to name that and socialize how we are whatever the protocols are before those 51As are called So that's your point, but understanding that there is some cultural competency that's deeply involved in that.

That's right. Lock up. Oh, you want to talk some more for them? Go ahead.

If you allow me to, I'm happy to help elaborate.

And no, because Culpepper's already giving me the side eye so I'm not trying to deal with this one. So hurry up.

Yeah, the only thing I would add to what Ms. McCarthy said was that There are laws around mandated reporting. And as an individual or even as a district, we cannot provide guidelines or recommendations on who should or shouldn't file 51As because that's an individual person decision to do that.

I think you're misunderstanding my point. My point is that the district is utilizing 51As to keep out-rate parents off of their grounds because they are trying to protect their children So that is what I'm referring to. And mandating reporting in the state, that is a whole different kind of worms and that's it. We're gonna go to Council Culpepper And you have five minutes. I'll be brief. That's what you always say, five minutes!

I do want to get to the students though. Dr. Tapena and I know your commitment but I would love to see is for BPS to work with Monica Murchison, to get her child back to school. Even if it means tutoring, whatever it takes to work with her, to get that child back to study and back to learning that I know that we all want. And so whatever it takes and I know you'll do whatever it takes but let's get that child back to learning, back to school even if it means in the beginning some home tutoring to get her back to

I'm happy to work with Monica on getting her children back to Boston Public Schools. And like I said, I'm disappointed in what happened and I'm-I'm happy make sure we put supports in place for our children if they do come back but I can't commit to tutoring because there are requirements around the tutoring. I can just say yes, I can provide tutoring. What we can do is make sure that when they do re-enroll, we work with Monica to develop a plan For each student at any school that they go to, to make sure they're making academic progress and having the trauma safety pieces addressed as well. and work very closely with her.

Can you look into the tutoring?

I can definitely look into it, but I just know that there's parameters around it that I just can't commit to it.

No, no, I got it. But if you're looking to it...

Happy to look into without a question. To the chairs. Monaco, my number is 617-594-7341. 617 59 47 34 1 I'm happy to take a number after this hearing as well

I'll do a group chat with y'all both. Then I'll monitor the situation and make sure it's happening.

Thank you, Councilor. Just making sure that's the number I got. You might have my personal number too. No. I got it. The other thing, and this is my final question Madam Chair. And either of you can speak to that. Astrid Hernandez talked about Restorative Practices, and he gave us a list of those. Can you just talk about how much you focus on and implement the restorative practices that Astrid Hernandez talked about?

It was Leon.

They both, it was the both of them. No, I think it was Ostrich that- No, Leon brought it up first.

Am I supposed to be talking? Sorry. Madam Chair's always right. She's always Thank you, Councilor Culpepper. We are in year three of our three to seven-year strategic plan around implementing what was appropriately called restorative justice practices. Okay. I think when you are trying to shift a culture that has been predicated on technicalities, consequences. You know, it requires a lot of training. It requires a thought preparation. It require a lot buy-in. I'll give you an example. Sometimes when the young Young Culpepper may have thrown something one day trying to hit the, you know we all used to yell Kobe or Jordan or something like that shot and it hits somebody a piece of paper hits someone. Sometimes

Historically, there's an urge to want to do something. Something has to happen to that person who made a poor decision and for us, if you're rooted in restorative justice practices, you have to look at who was impacted Right. What is the nature and depth of the impact? And then looking at the person who made the poor decision and then creating a space where they could individually respond to that. And then in the larger piece, I think the toughest part of integrating restorative justice practices is really help making it be digestible to the community. It sounds good, feels good but the doing becomes pretty difficult and is really just rooted in fairness, and it's hard to do that when you have hundreds of years of a particular practice.

What about the trainer-sensitive learning models?

It's relative to restorative justice practices? Yes. We have the trainer-trainer trainings. Actually, if the council would like to do some restorative training, Jamila will be happy to set those up with Safe and Welcoming Schools. I think it's important so you guys can know what the look-fors are when you go to schools, where you'll know there's a serious difference when your school is practicing than when it's not. One becomes technical and the other one feels more adaptive and inclusive.

So this is the chair's committee, if she agrees to it I'll do it. I would like to do it, but this is the chair's committee so... You can do whatever you want.

You're District 7.

Did you hear what she said? She said I could do whatever I want.

Whenever you're ready. 515 Hyde Park Ave.

Thank you, ma'am.

If he don't do it, he's going to blame me. You can do whatever you want. Don't put me on your business. All right. Are you having a good time? You know you like my hearings. Everybody likes my hearings! Y'all having fun? Y'all having fun too? No, y'all skiing. Always, always, always. All right, all right, that doesn't get too excited. So I'm not going to hold you all hostage but I would like if you have the time to, we have a youth panel If you could stay to listen. And if you can't, it is being recorded so if people have to go don't think that then they don't have an opportunity to still hear young people there will be another way to do that but I just want to say thank you, and we will be reaching out to you all to create this oversight committee. I know it sounds punitive but I really do believe that people want something that feels like It has teeth to it, right? So it's not something like, oh, it's an advisory committee.

No, we want to create something that we're going to hold ourselves accountable too but there's also a role for community to play so it's just what BPS can do. There are some things that parents can do too. There's some things students can do And I think that what we have to start learning how to realize is that everybody's accountable for community safety, and everybody's accountability for how students feel. And we all need to own that. And that's the type of leadership that I want to bring to this conversation is making sure that everybody is playing their role and we're here to serve students in doing it collectively.

I apologize to the young people. I will try to stay as long as I can, I do have some childcare issues but I will be here as long I can.

And you can blame Councilor Culpepper for how long the young had to wait to speak. All right, y'all. Can I get the youth down here? We have young people who are here from various schools So come on down. And you each have three minutes and we appreciate you being here representing. Y'all each get your own microphone, go ahead. That's right, go head. See, you gotta like stand in that power. It's okay. All right, so who wants to go first? I will go with you.

That's right, because you gave me eye contact. That's what you get. Three minutes.

Okay. My name is Empress. I go to Bunker Hill Community College where I have went Multiple BPS schools throughout my years. And I think what I really want to talk about is like, Nourishing children, because a lot of times I feel like we forget about when we make these policies that these are children. And we should be implementing more things like good lunches, because kids don't feel comfortable Lunch is in a way like making sure people are fed, making sure that people are having a good environment because I can help that as well. as well having trained people to like help with, train counselors to help kids who are going through something. I think just having teachers do that all the help is not gonna be beneficial and yeah. Okay. Oh, that's... Yeah, I have more of it.

You sure? Yeah. Okay. Hello guys, my name is Jen Maileese and I'm a 17-year old I'm 16 years old and I go to Match Charter Public High School. And I'm here today because I want to talk about how bullying and retaliation truthfully affect young people. You know like this whole hearing has been about like hearing stories, but I want you to understand from a more psychological mental level how it affects people. In programs like partial hospitals, I have missed school for months to take a break from my mental health. And I met a lot of other students from ages I would say from grade seven to seniors that all like report kind of the same thing.

They have issues with going to school because they find the climate unbearable to be at and It was from all different backgrounds. I think the youngest there was seventh grade, From seventh grade. And even like seniors also report that they don't really want to do or engage in any senior activities because of how they don t get along with their cohorts and Feel supported by their own teachers to go back to school. And just like hearing about their experience makes me feel like the bullying situation hasn't been addressed enough Because even now, that partial hospital is still running and there's still very much people there that feel as if they can't go to school or they don't want to go to

of Bullying. And I feel as if it's kind of like put yourself in their shoes I don't think that I would want to go to school either if I was getting harassed in the hallway for being LGBTQ plus or being from a different race or ethnicity. And yeah.

Hi, my name is Emanuelle Martins. I go to Everett High School and I'm 15. Something I mostly want to talk about is student mental health which i feel like it's a very big problem especially I feel like yes, at schools we do have help for mental health. but a lot of it sometimes students don't know about. Something that most students know about is their counselors, but that's about all and sometimes Students don't trust their counselors because they know how the information will be shown to their parents. And sometimes students just don't want their parents to acknowledge or know that they're struggling You know, it may be various different reasons. It might be because they're embarrassed or because they come from a background that like being or feeling a certain way is wrong.

So yeah.

Are you guys ready for questions? Y'all ready? We're going to go first to Councilor Flynn, then Fitzgerald and then Council Culpepper, then myself. And I just want to say thank you ladies it is not easy to show up in this chamber and speak truth to power. And you've done that, so I just wanna acknowledge y'all for that. Councilor Flynn, you have the floor.

Thank you Madam Chair and thank you Young women that are here and for your excellent testimony and professional poised and speaking exceptionally well on behalf of the people you're in. So thank you for being here. Your testimony is helping us as we discuss this major problem, but it's giving us ideas on how we can move forward. So your testimony was perfect Let me just ask a question to anyone that wants to respond. But if a young person in school is bullied, What do you think the proper step should be for that young person to communicate to the school leader about it? Or...

or if they hear about it from another person. But what should it be, if a young person is bullied? How should they go about trying to deal with the situation?

I would say first, like what Emma was saying it might be hard to report bullying because well nowadays I feel like children might be labeled as a snitch or they might want to go anonymously first and report it to a safe Designated Safe Trusted Adult. For children that aren't really social or they don't really have a social life or friends, or they might find it hard to even speak up because like we've heard, there are cases where nonverbal students can't really report the abuse that they're facing. I would say having designated with training safety

Trusted Adults, but also making sure that students can report anonymously just of the fear that there might be retaliation like a fight or any physical punishment. and many more.

Is there an opportunity for a young person, a student to if they don't necessarily want to go to say the school principal but could they go to a school guidance counselor or a school nurse, a school social worker? or even a classmate that would be understanding and maybe give that young person some good advice on how to move forward. What are your thoughts on that?

I will say that no, mostly because a lot of times those counselors are not built to handle those problems as well because they're not trained. But also a lot those kids probably would feel alone Thank you for joining us. People don't really, they just think all you have to do is talk to each other and it'll be okay. Instead of actually going through why this is happening? What can we do to fix it? Can we offer any programs that can help that Thank you for joining us. They can't really go to counselors to help that, and they might also feel judged as well because we come from a society that judges people who are lower than us, who don't have

A lot of opportunities, so I would say BPS has not really been the best at doing that because usually it's not... It's not seen as a big problem unless someone is actually getting hurt. Don't try to do things when someone's hurt or there's a big fight, or it's on the news and stuff where it's like okay now damage control. That's when they actually want to come in and fix the problem. And yeah, I don't think they do. And again also, I We should actually get therapists, people Good with those things because a lot of adults also are not the best. They judge other children as well, especially they might look down on that child, especially if they're not like the best behaved. So yes, that's my answer.

The answer was excellent. Madam Chair, may I continue with one more question? Sure. Thank you. Just is it really critical For the students to know their school leader, their school principal but to have a trusting relationship in the school leader principle so that they can go forward with any issues and knowing that the school principal will listen to them and provide some good guidance or recommendations.

I think so, like yes. But also that the principal cannot be the only person that they can go to. I think there should be a wide variety of those people and The principal should be the ones enact like putting in the system so kids can feel comfortable and have many people to go to. So they feel like there's multiple adults that actually care for me. There's multiple programs I care about, I can go to a nurse if I get hit I feel comfortable telling her about that situation. So yes, I think the principal or like a dean should be the person who is that type of person but at the same time there shouldn't... The principal shouldn't be the only one.

Beaulieu, yep.

Personally, at my school a dean or principal sometimes is seen as oh if you get in trouble that's where you go. I don't think deans or principals should be seen as that either so maybe if there was some type of way to change students There should be ways of seeing deans or principal as a scary place to go, or somewhere that you go when you're in trouble, or someone you can't trust. There should different way to show students and let them know oh your dean isn't here Only when you're in trouble, your dean is here for other stuff too.

Thank you and Madam Chair, thank you for giving me the extra minute. I want to say thank you to these young people for their excellent testimony I really learned a lot by listening to them, and I know they made this hearing much better because of their testimony. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank You, Councillor Flynn. Councillor Fitzgerald? You now have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you all for being here today I think it's awesome that you took the time to come down One thing I want to address is digital bullying Right, because I feel like nowadays it might happen on a screen and then percolates into the classroom. And that's where an incident might occur They might not have all the facts, or at least teachers and guidance counselors, et cetera, might not know what has led up to that. What do you guys think would be a good way You know, how do you feel in reporting that if something is on social media or AI or something's floating around or it's a group text and it might not happen in the school. Right? But it sort of leads to the school incident. Is there a way that you guys would feel better reporting that? I know you talked about doing it anonymously, but even when you see that stuff happening in the group chat or things are floating around, AI images or whatever it may be...

You know, what can we do to make sure that you all feel comfortable in how you report it and who you report

What I would say is that, instead of paying the blame on the victim for saying Something that's a little inappropriate, I think we should instead pit more fault onto the person who exposed those images with the person is bullying that person. When I see people being cyberbullied Always see adults say that, oh why did you do this? Or why can't you just log off? And I think when BPS is handling cyberbullying they should Hold accountable to people online but also make a safe space for that victim instead of just victim blaming the person and saying you know this is your fault or like here's some like what you should like to make it seem like she should have did something different. And I think that um Instead, we should just make more of a... Just keep in mind that they're still a victim and we should be asking ourselves why did that person do that to them in the first place? How can we fix that?

How fast can the police get those pictures scrubbed off the internet, off the text messages and things like that?

Thank you, go ahead.

I think just a big way to solve all this would be to prevent retaliation. If retaliation was prevented after the cyberbullying or digital bullying happened Maybe students weren't be so afraid to reach out of someone and let someone higher in power know about it. A lot of the students don't report such things because they're scared of retaliation themselves So I think if there could be a way to find a way To prevent retaliation, so not only the person who I also think another part

is they might not want to report it because kind of like what Emma was saying, there's a back and forth that typically happens with cyberbullying that leads to either physical confrontation School. And then there's also another factor where other students that are bystanders, they'll egg it on just for entertainment. But I think that There also might be issues reporting it because of parents or home life as well. They might not feel like, Like for example, if they knew that they were saying something back or they were also kind of like let's say for example a student was posting something on Instagram then

because that student saw the student that was bullied, then they also went back and forth on Instagram. They might feel like I don't want to report that because the school might call my parents That I was doing something wrong when really they were just defending themselves. Yeah.

Interesting. Do you think it would be helpful to have like, I mean, again, I don't know the full legality of all of this, but there's good Samaritan laws where I think about when you mentioned people standing around egging it on. And if we hold the folks accountable that don't take action, say there is a fight in the hallway. Say there is bullying going on and the other folks just sort of stand around and let it happen I feel like if we held everyone accountable in this situation, if you witness it and do nothing aren't you sort of complicit in it really? And how can we help folks to sort of all come together to make sure hey I don't want to get in trouble. I'm going to step in. And if everyone had that feeling, I feel like it would be a lot more... It might be a little less bullying but a lot of control over that as well.

I'm just thinking, that was just from thoughts but this is why it's so great that you guys are here and talking to us like this because what it does is it gets our minds working right? I've been out of high school for a long time. and Cyberbullying didn't exist when I was there. So it is a new thing to me, and I think it's a new things to a lot of us here that we're sort of how do we get on your wavelength and understand how you all want to respond and how it affects you? I just want to thank you again for taking the time to come here to educate us. It was really important and like Councilor Flynn said, we learned a lot so Chair, thank you so much for having them and thank you for chairing this hearing.

I appreciate you being here, Council Fitzgerald. Council Culpepper, you have five minutes. Wait one second. As much as I don't want to hear everything you guys say,

Thank you. Four. Thank you! So, And this is for either one of you. So what needs to be added to or changed with regard to the reporting? and the investigating for bullying, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct. And what improvements are needed to ensure that students and their families feel comfortable coming forward?

I would say first, the retaliation is a really big part. And also from my experience, I know when my mom tried to report an issue that my sister was having on the bus She wasn't called back. It was stagnant, there was no progress and the student wasn't taken off the bus. My sister still rode on the bus with that same student and I would say Getting to the actual problem and handling it efficiently because usually these things take time, but over that time that they're taking to address these issues, it'll keep on happening. because of retaliation. And can you repeat the first part of your question?

So, do you have an idea of the current procedures for Reporting and investigating, I wanted to know what improvements are needed. Do you guys want to share?

To make you feel more comfortable. Oh, I would say to for like the mandated reporter part. I know it can be scary when you're in an office kind of getting interrogated And there's someone saying that they're going to call your mom and these things are gonna happen. It might make you feel discouraged from telling the truth or like, telling what happened. The student might feel regret or shame because I think there's also victim blaming that happens where it's like, well what did you do or how did you respond to this? And I would say making them feel Thank you.

Mom, Phil when she didn't get the call back. Did she ever get a call back? Was the situation with your sister ever addressed

The situation wasn't addressed. It was addressed by my sister having to go to a counselor and talk about her feelings, but that was only for one day. I remember that day my, well what happened was a student on the bus was like beating her with the shoe and my sister came home like she was really She has ADHD, so she's very emotional. And what was supposed to happen was that there was supposed be a bus monitor there sitting next to her or basically... making sure that the bus feels safe for her, but there was no bus monitor and I knew that because I went on the bus. The morning I had like dropped her to school so that I could talk to the student

or talk to the bus driver and ask him what happened, what did he see. There wasn't any... He had told me that he didn't see anything and that there was really nothing and that I needed to get off So there wasn't really much that I could do. And all, really my mom could do was call the school but there was no progress that happened.

Thank you.

I would also like to add, making sure that they can come to the person anonymously but also making sure They know that there's resources out there for a counselor too, that they can talk to but there's multiple counselors instead of one. When I was at Tech Boston we only had one counselor for the whole grade and a lot of times there'll be other students and the counselor in the room. And I feel like that it can't really allow a safe space because there's so many kids needing one thing from this one counselor, and I think if they know that there's multiple people that they can go to who are trained, but also that can actually help them. I think they'll make victims feel more comfortable while also remaining anonymous and feeling like okay if they know that I said something, I'm not gonna get in trouble I'm not gonna buy other students and feel like i'm a loser for snitching because snitch culture is really big deal especially in low income areas and with like black people as well so i think making sure that you know

They know that they're able to come to multiple people instead of just one person and feel like they can be anonymous while doing it.

So you're impressed? Yeah. Impressed, did you say that there were other people in the room when they met with the counselor?

Yeah, usually the kids will need something as well. I've been in a room where there's been like two fights happening or just one kid just needs something sanitary or just really talk to somebody. Or sometimes some kids wouldn't have a phone so they'd use a counselor's phone Things like that. And that counselor would not only just be overwhelmed, it would also be like they can't handle each kid's problems effectively. and efficiently. And the only time they'll be handled like problems efficiently will be when someone got in a fight or something really big happened instead of, I feel if that kid was able to go Multiple counselors, the problem will be stopped sooner.

Thank you.

I would also like to...

Pronounce your name. You are... No, go on.

Oh me?

Yes.

Emanuele.

Okay.

I would like to add that another way that I think could help solve would be trying to minimize gossip during investigation. I know gossip can't really be stopped, but at least trying to minimize it I think would help because I think gossip is really what starts up bullying. And especially if there's an investigation happening and A student finds out there is gossip that someone's talking about them in the middle of an investigation, it might lead to a bigger conflict. That's all I'd like to say.

Could not your name again?

Emanuele or Emma.

Culpepper. Your time went up two minutes ago and I'm just, it's almost six o'clock. It's almost five o' clock and we still have public testimony and I still have asked questions and I've been incredibly generous so one more question.

Okay just one final question Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just hope you do the same for me when it's my turn.

I did last week.

We're not doing that right now. Go.

Is there a hotline? Does the Boston public school system have a hotline that you can call and confidentially and anonymously report something? that has to do with whether it's sexual harassment or bullying, or sexual misconduct? Is there a hotline?

Not that I know of. If there was, it's not... It's not said out loud for a lot of students to say, and also like is it This is just like a follow-up question to you. Is this, like, a hotline that they can call or text? Because a lot of kids don't feel comfortable with calling sometimes. They don't so comfortable with texts. Like, is this a hot line that also includes text messages as well, or is it just a hot and is this open 24-7 or is it just like a hotline?

Well, you tell me what you'd like to see.

I personally would like to I did not know if there was a hotline or because it's not promoted and I do think that can help a lot of kids as well. But after the hotline, I would like to see when that kid calls, it does get handled After that, not just oh yeah I did my part the student called and it's like okay they talked to somebody no like it actually is handled. It's actually figured out instead of this feeling like okay I call but nothing happened because a lot of kids can't feel that way and that makes victims not want to come forward so

Great. Emma?

Really, Councilor?

Should there be a hotline? No, I just want to talk about the hotline.

It's critical. I understand, but it's obvious that there is a need for a hot line, wouldn't you all say?

So at least let them say it because the texting for the hotline is critical. I wouldn't have thought about that. You wouldn't tell us what kind of headline you'd like to see

I would like to see texting. That's personally what I'm more comfortable with. I know other students in my grade would also feel comfortable texting since it's, I feel like it's easier Speak your mind and say how you feel in text because other people might feel like kind of choked up when they talk about it on call. And also for the kids that can't talk as well, texting is better as well.

Emma, you might as well answer it because I know Culpepper is not going to let you go away without saying your two cents. Go ahead, Culpeper. That's your last question.

I'd also like texting, but I think I'd like a certain website because I feel with a website there's a way to block out the phone number. Because if that person's phone number does get leaked somehow People might find out who that person is and it's going to no longer be an ominous.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have no further questions.

Well, you can because your time was up three minutes ago and I'm going to retake team Just want you all to know we're going to analyze the way the situation played out today. I feel like I've been bullied. No, that's it. Your time is done. And if you have any other final comments, you can go talk to BPS to make it happen. Okay, I've been incredibly patient. Okay so there is an existing hotline just so you know for the record and I do love the idea of adding text. And I think it's really important Well, so y'all need to do a better job at letting everybody know these things exist because these young people didn't even know. So we need some money in the PSA department so that we can let the world know what BPS has, okay? Okay there you go.

That's how you make things happen. Watch Emma because you go to Everett. I'm gonna start with you first, okay. So can you talk to me a little bit about what are some of the things that they're doing at your school that work really well, that you think BPS should model?

At my school, I'm not sure if they have this at BPS or not, but at my school we have culture days or flag days. Basically every student gets to show off where they're from and Even though I feel like a lot of bullying does come from where you're originally from, personally in my school, I don't see much of it. They like to show off where they're from, and people just think it's cool to be from different places. And they like to learn. For example, I'm Brazilian, and a lot of my friends love trying different foods from Brazil and they love learning new languages. And I'd say we have a pretty good language program over there, and it's helping students improve to learn new languages

Now. And I'm not sure how much you guys know about the students app, there was a student app that was created by I think it was BSAC back in the day, Boston Public Schools created this app Are you familiar with it? Have you, are you guys familiar with that? Okay. And but and it was monitored though the problem was is that I believe it was monitoring by the Department of Equity and Engagement And while BSAC did receive reports, the fact that I think it was monitored by BPS, it feels a little bit invasive. So I think that as we continue to... You want to come back on the stand? Okay, because you're out here making... Okay. Because your non-verbals are speaking a lot, Sam. But I appreciate it. I just think that we need to revisit the app and make it a little bit more student friendly

and work alongside BPS to do that. And I'd love for you all, if you could make a commercial, a PSA around what students can do To help support students who are being bullied, what would your message be? And or what message would you have for adults and educators on what they need to do to better support students? So it's either what message would you have for students to better support students who are experiencing bullying? And or, what message will you have adults so that they can better support student who are being bullied. What's your message?

I just also want to add there should also be a message for bystanders as well, that if they see something say something. And I think for I would say for adults as well, because a lot of adults can be bystanders and they fail to report bullying as well. Pretty much the same, but also watch out for the more passive bullying. The bullying that is not fully upfront like teasing, name calling, having a student Be isolated or excluded from their peers, how can you as an adult help them basically fit in with their peers or make sure that they can

use like school to express themselves or they can find a space to express himself and I would say for students um to have confidence sharing, like how like trust I feel like for that as well, there would need to be proof that there is trust and something will be done at the end of day. A lot of students feel like, well what's the point if nothing is going to be done? If it's just gonna escalate things more. I feel like there should be some evidence or some proof or some number that shows Thank you.

And Empress, you were a BPS student and I'm curious just what would What would your message be to the district? Adults or students.

I will say for parents and adults, I would say that make sure you hold your kid accountable when they are the person who's bullying the kid I would say for teachers do not dismiss the problem as two children or as a childish thing that children is having and I, for the district in general, I would say that stop focusing on grades and test scores and start actually improving like low-income schools as well. So I feel like low income schools Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

like who has the best grades actually put time into the students and let them be have time to express themselves.

And yeah, thank you for that. And I want to be mindful that it is six o'clock and I don't want I already go over my time. And I believe we have public testimony? We have folks signed up for public testimony, so I just want to say thank you for carrying the voices of young people into this space and for bringing so much unique perspective. And I'm hoping that those who are listening, and who have the power to make things happen will actually do just that And we'll invite you all to be part of the work that we are about to embark on. I just want to thank both Mashkosh and Tilaw for bringing young people into this conversation in creating space for them to feel not only heard but affirmed. So I just wanna say thank you, y'all did a great job. Y'all should feel really proud. Yeah we're not done yet.

Absolutely, you're already doing whatever you want. Go ahead.

So your testimony was really helpful to hear the real world perspective from Young folks and how you feel, and how do you see it? And how you think it should be. It's really helpful to be able to take the notes down and to go back and read them I started working on some of the things you suggested. And so, I just want to commend you for having the courage and the confidence to come and speak before the council. And if you ever need anything Just give Councilor Culpepper a call and I'm at your beck and call. Thank you so much. Thank You. You're welcome.

And yeah, while you guys get up and we get ready for public testimony y'all I'll just say that for me, this is personal. I was one of those kids that was bullied. My mom and I bounced from place to place because we were too poor to live in one neighborhood long enough for me to stay in one school So I was always that kid that went to school mid-year. So what happens to the new kid? They always get picked on and then, I didn't speak English, we were very poor, I did have the best of the best so I had to learn how to fight I had to fight literally, to literally fight people just to get by. And so you wanna talk about trauma that stuff then carries into your adult life because then you don't know who to trust And so bullying has a long impact effect on young people that lasts a lifetime. So I'm so incredibly grateful for you all as young people to utilize your microphone in the way that you did today. Thank you.

I had the courage to do that when I was your age, so thank you. Let's go. Don't be trying it, y'all got two minutes each okay? I'm gonna put this microphone really loud so you can hear the timer You see when that says two, that's it.

Two minutes. Good afternoon, councillors. My name is Opurba Fatima. I'm the lead labor and trainer organizer at MASCOSH I wrote the anti-bullying curriculum, which Councilwoman Mejia mentioned. And we use it with young people and adults with funding from the Department of Public Health This summer, our teens trained other young people themselves. And watching a 15 year old and a 17 year old explain to a room of peers how to spot bullying At work was one of the most fulfilling moments of my job. But let's face it, it's not always Thank you very much.

And in our restorative justice circles, one of the most effective ways we know how to prevent and reduce harm together which was also shaped and built with the help of Department of Public Health Some of these young people shared real harm and trauma. Some told us how deeply it had seeped into the way they see themselves. It is hard to separate who you are from that harm that can stay for as long as you live. And we understood that a big barrier to safety is that many youth can't identify what's happening to them, and even when they can, they struggle to articulate into words. Alongside funding for the tools and knowledge young people need to tackle harm, they need adults who can recognize it too. So our mission is very simple. We give young people the words for what they're living through and we make sure that adults in their lives understand those words as well. When we talk about certain cultures, because every culture is different.

When we talked about cultural competency it is also important to recognize what it means to grow up in different dynamics and to cater for those dynamics is something very very important and often looked So every child, understanding how every child is different, special and curious we also have to understand how we can provide for them in the best possible capacity. So today, I want to thank you all and want to encourage you to work with us so that we can make sure that bullying is not just a problem that we are solving but it is something that we're building against too. Thank you so much.

Okay, y'all she went over two minutes.

Go ahead. My name's Supreme. Good evening, counselors. And I go to Boston Day Evening Academy. I am 16 and I want to talk about the lack of support that students have when it comes to mental health and some schools are only one counselor for a whole bunch of students as the students here have talked about. And they really have a big effect not getting your wants and feelings out there, and there's only one counsellor who is overwhelmed like the counselors said over here and it can just lead to multiple problems for that student. It's adding on more stress, hey I can't get out and talk to nobody because only one counselor or there is a lack of support when it comes to low-income schools in places Because most of the people who have problems are going to low-income places, come from low income families. So I just feel like we should start caring more about the student instead of just worrying What's going on over here? Like, what's going at home? We should really focus on what's happening inside the house and inside of school and what happened inside their mind because there are a lot going through a young person's mind. and I can say myself, I had problems. And I feel like I had no one to talk to because nobody's saying you're just a kid.

You have certain things to worry about. You should worry about schools that are worrying You know, certain things happening outside of school you're getting bullied. So I think that we need to start having a bigger impact when it comes to more counselors and more mental health spaces and more people who are either black or you are I think that we just start to focus more on their mental and focus more who they are instead of just putting them down or annoying them because they're kids. So thank you for having me and have a nice evening. Thank you. Good job.

All right. Where you going? You can't be holding hostage everybody and then leave. You're gonna wait till everybody finish speaking, find out you all here trying to leave. Do they do? Go ahead.

Good evening city councillors, good evening. My name is Nia Jean-Pierre and today I'm here with Teens Lead at Work. I currently go to Boston Latin School and today i wanted to focus on bullying and its impact on students mental health Bullying can affect students more than people realize as it can make students feel bad about themselves and make it harder for them to feel comfortable at school. I believe that students shouldn't have to deal with that when school is supposed to be a place where they can learn and be safe. Students who have experiences with bullying deserve to be taken seriously and supported. And as City Councillors, I urge you to support programs that prevent bullying and increase access to mental health help for young people. We want to see protection for our health and safety for all students. Thank you for your time and listening to my concerns.

I won't take too much time, but my name is Chanelle. And I used to go to Madison, but I recently graduated. There was this time where I was threatened by another student who It was really bad and really harmful. And it was reported, but the teacher said you know how he is You just gotta let him be, leave him be. And I was just like why are we... At first I was like why're we mending to these bad students? If they say something, why don't we actually take action into what they had said? because it was a threat. It was not bullying, it was the threat. But then also hearing what Supreme had said about mental health, he was like a student that Kinda had outbursts at times, so I just feel like his thing was an inner thing. You know, I'm all about not being close-minded

But I just feel like if we could do more mental health support classes, because we've got all these hours in school of learning math and English. But we're not teaching people about mental health and how to support themselves and how for themselves. So that's really all I had to say and thank you for your time.

Wait, because I still have some... You have time so I want to use your time How did it feel when the adult said Well, you know how he is. How did you feel about that when you reported something that made you feel uncomfortable?

It honestly just felt like I was being Pushed out, like oh she slept under the rug I guess I could say and put it. It just didn't make me feel heard. It didn't made me feel like any type of action would have been taken There was multiple times in Madison where there's people who reported something but it just goes to, oh you know how this person is. You know how they are. It doesn't make any sense to me I feel like we should Talk to the victims and not just talk to the people that did the harm.

What would you have liked to have heard?

I would have liked to have heard that he's going to get handled with, because I saw him at graduation and it's like you put on a threat that was very harmful. If it was set on the street, the police would have came and handled that. So it's just...I don't know. More aggression, I guess, towards what he had said to me because if he came at me aggressive, I feel like he should have got that back. But then again it's also about his health so I understand too.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

And normally we're not supposed to ask questions but I had extra time so we'll...

Good evening, City Councilor. Thank you again so much for just putting on this opportunity for the young people to come in and talk about anti-bullying Restorative Practices. I'm happy to just be talking to you and your team, I feel like that's definitely a great conclusion of this hearing. And I can only say for myself as the... My name is Bria Smith, I'm the youth program leader at MASCOSH, Teens Lead At Work for short and the young people killed it tonight. They showed true honor, they showed rigor, they show confidence, just their experience as to how we can make rehabilitation within our schools right? How do we see the root of disorder before using a punitive action so Here at TLaw, we have our young people training and understanding anti-bullying practices in the workplace but also transitioning that into our schools, into our communities, into places like this. They need to be at the forefront of conversations like this. You and I both know that, our team knows that but how do we get the schools to know that? Where's the superintendent you know what i mean

How are we making sure that our families are feeling like they're a part of the conversation with their young people as change makers, as galvanizers and adults as supporters? We gotta retire that conversation that we know everything. I haven't been in high school in about 10 years, you know what I mean? But my young people every single day they tell me and they teach me so many new things about how to make restorative practices What things they need to feel empowered, to feel confident and we're the ones that are supposed to create that evidence. That's supposed to work dutily to research to draft data, to have trainings and give them that support. So I hope you got a little insight in what young people are doing here in Boston to really create these frameworks for restorative practices and make sure they feel supported. I don't know, I just feel very full. I dunno if anyone else feels the same way but they're gonna take over it and they're going to lead these conversations I have a lot of trust in them, so thank you so much for just offering them the opportunity.

The panel went really well and we're gonna continue doing our work to make sure that our young leaders feel as supported and safe as possible not only in their schools their communities but in the workplace so have a good evening thank you. Okay.

I know, right? Was this a great hearing? I don't know. I thought it was great. I always love being with people. I will say this is that the folks who helped us plan this, from the parents who brought it to our attention, to the organizations that have been leading in the space. to the district for showing up and apologizing because it really is not an easy thing to do, to apologize and acknowledge harm. So I just want to say thank you to you all for acknowledging the harm that has been caused. It is not easy to show up in this chamber, Dr. Dupina and you do it all the time so I just want to say thank you for that. And I want to thank y'all. You really showed up, and our planning partners, our coalition, all of y'alls. I keep calling you BSAC, but I know you're now Beja. Beja, BSAC you know, MASHCOSH, every single Juvenile for Citizens...

Justice, every single one of y'all. And more importantly the young people and we I just want to know for the record that we ended with young people because we wanted to give them time to get here not because didn't believe your voices should be first. So I just want, you know, yes we're gonna take a photo and before I end, we're going to keep this docket in committee. We are definitely going to be doing some working sessions creating the work Plan, because we're not going to have any more conversations about it in a conversation. We're actually going to do things about it and we're gonna do it in partnership with the district because that's what this moment is calling for.

We're really hoping we can create a crisis action team that involves everyone, that is a collective power with the youth as well as the educators and oversight that is actually transparent for everyone, especially their parents. They deserve better.

So normally, the way these hearings end... Oh I have a gobble. This hearing on docket 0407 is adjourned. There we go y'all! We did it!