After Charlottesville, Dedham Schools Remain No Place For Hate

DEDHAM, MA — Weeks after the events in Charlottesville, the Dedham School Committee reaffirmed that the school district will always be a welcoming and accepting place for everyone.

The committee voted to endorse a statement on the deadly incident from Superintendent Michael Welch. The superintendent said he has sent information to staff so they have the tools they need to handle it with students.

The committee’s endorsement vote was unanimous.

“The Dedham Public Schools are made up of many different cultures from all over and we need to support that. We need our kids to feel like they have a safe place in their schools and places where their voices can be heard,” committee member Lisa Laprade said

The statement is as follows:

The Dedham School Committee is strongly committed to a safe, supportive, welcoming, and inclusive environment for all children. The recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia in which participants demonstrated violent racist, antisemitic, and hateful discriminatory views have no place in our society and run counter to our core values.

We want the entire Dedham community to know the Dedham School Committee will not tolerate racist, antisemitic, or hateful and discriminatory behaviors or actions in our schools. Such actions are unacceptable and we denounce them unequivocally.

Our public schools are the foundation of beliefs for our communities and our next generation of citizens. We will continue to value, welcome, and support each and every student and family. We also have a responsibility to teach and foster inclusive values to model our school system’s beliefs as an example to the greater community.

Dedham has the distinction of being the first community in the nation to support a free, taxpayer supported public school system for all students. This occurred in the year 1644. Given the events within our nation in recent weeks, we wanted to take this opportunity to send a clear message. The Dedham School Committee rejects all forms of hateful and discriminatory behavior and reaffirms our core commitment to a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students and their families in the Dedham Public Schools.

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