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Mount Greylock Shares Detail on Zoom Bombing, Vows Work on Anti-Racism

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Mount Greylock Regional Superintendent Jason McCandless told the School Committee on Thursday that the district had concluded its investigation into a January "Zoom bombing" incident and promised that the district will "move forward better and wiser as a school community and a community in general."
 
McCandless revealed that the person who intruded in a high school virtual classroom and played racially offensive music was "a young person of color," but quickly noted that the perpetrator's intent was less relevant than the impact it had on the victims.
 
"Whether this particular incident was based in racism or not … racism is very real," McCandless said. "Bias is very real. It exists in our communities and in every school and in every community across the nation.
 
"The investigation into this incident suggests that the incident was perhaps not racially motivated. … I certainly do not know what was in [the perpetrators'] mind. I do know that we must continue to work to help the young people who are close to us and young people in general understand that, in the end, an individual's motivation sometimes doesn't matter. What actually matters is how the victim of the incident perceived the motivation and the event."
 
McCandless said the school district continues to communicate with the student who appeared to be the primary target of the incident and their family.
 
And he revealed for the first time that there were two perpetrators involved in the events of Jan. 21, the student who trespassed in the virtual classroom and another student who allowed it to happen. The primary perpetrator was a student from a different school district, McCandless reiterated.
 
He said the school is less interested in seeing either perpetrator punished for their actions than in seeking restorative justice.
 
"Young people do deserve second chances, and they deserve third and fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh chances," McCandless said. "American history shows that some young people get dozens and dozens of chances, while some young people in America, often because of the color of their skin, get no second chance ever.
 
"We will not repeat those historical sins here in our community or in our school district. We will work to further develop restorative opportunities, opportunities to learn from mistakes and to make things right. We will continue to work to build character and empathy and understanding rather than build the resentments that come from [issuing] mere punishment and then being done and walking away."
 
McCandless thanked the administration at the middle-high school and the Williamstown Police Department for their roles in completing the investigation into an incident that touched off numerous conversations in the school community and the community at large.
 
"No matter what the ultimate outcome of this investigation was nor in the end what the motivation was, we continue to approach our work knowing full well that hate is real, bias is real, racism is real," McCandless said. "It's present in every community everywhere, in every school across the country.
 
"And we know that we must redouble and triple our efforts to pursue to the very end creating a more inclusive, diverse and just school system where every child and every family know that irregardless of their income level, their ability or disability, their religion, their sexual orientation, how they identify, their race, their culture, their language that they have a home here and they belong here."

Tags: MGRS,   racism,   

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WCMA: 'Cracking the Code on Numerology'

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) opens a new exhibition, "Cracking the Cosmic Code: Numerology in Medieval Art."
 
The exhibit opened on March 22.
 
According to a press release: 
 
The idea that numbers emanate sacred significance, and connect the past with the future, is prehistoric and global. Rooted in the Babylonian science of astrology, medieval Christian numerology taught that God created a well-ordered universe. Deciphering the universe's numerical patterns would reveal the Creator's grand plan for humanity, including individual fates. 
 
This unquestioned concept deeply pervaded European cultures through centuries. Theologians and lay people alike fervently interpreted the Bible literally and figuratively via number theory, because as King Solomon told God, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wisdom 11:22). 
 
"Cracking the Cosmic Code" explores medieval relationships among numbers, events, and works of art. The medieval and Renaissance art on display in this exhibition from the 5th to 17th centuries—including a 15th-century birth platter by Lippo d'Andrea from Florence; a 14th-century panel fragment with courtly scenes from Palace Curiel de los Ajos, Valladolid, Spain; and a 12th-century wall capital from the Monastery at Moutiers-Saint-Jean—reveal numerical patterns as they relate to architecture, literature, gender, and timekeeping. 
 
"There was no realm of thought that was not influenced by the all-consuming belief that all things were celestially ordered, from human life to stones, herbs, and metals," said WCMA Assistant Curator Elizabeth Sandoval, who curated the exhibition. "As Vincent Foster Hopper expounds, numbers were 'fundamental realities, alive with memories and eloquent with meaning.' These artworks tease out numerical patterns and their multiple possible meanings, in relation to gender, literature, and the celestial sphere. 
 
"The exhibition looks back while moving forward: It relies on the collection's strengths in Western medieval Christianity, but points to the future with goals of acquiring works from the global Middle Ages. It also nods to the history of the gallery as a medieval period room at this pivotal time in WCMA's history before the momentous move to a new building," Sandoval said.
 
Cracking the Cosmic Code runs through Dec. 22.
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