Letter: Comment to Dravis Article on 2022 Year in Williamstown

Letter to the Editor03:00PM / Tuesday, January 03, 2023Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

I just posted the following as a comment to Mr. Dravis' article on 2022 in Williamstown. Many in Williamstown rely on Mr. Dravis' reporting as their primary source of local news. With that influence comes responsibility.

Below are some quotes from Mr. Dravis' article. They are assertions. If Mr. Dravis has facts to support these assertions, I hope he feels responsibility to share them. The context in which the perpetrator(s) act is important. And, most of all, when investigation yields important information, that information should be given as much print as the initial posting. Sometimes investigation reveals that which seems "racist" is better called by a less judgmental term.

Why?

Once there is even a hint of racism, people, particularly those of color, are hurt. They are made to believe they are "other" in our community. Damage is done. The hurt they feel is real. If these incidents are overblown or misrepresented, people have been hurt for no good reason. A climate of uncertainty must not be encouraged.

Is DIRE, our police department, Williams College or any one keeping a factual list of who? what? when? where? And most important of all: what did an objective investigation reveal about the facts of the "racial" incident? Do we call a bias incident "racist" when the perpetrator was a "person of color?" If we have these lists, and we should, make these lists public. There are ways to share the facts without violating privacy rights. If there is a pervasive undercurrent of racism in this town, it is not seen by many and it certainly is not welcome. Let us both hear the narratives and gather facts.

Below are some of the assertions in the cited article and my comments in capital letters following.
"Hateful messages received"; 2022 had plenty of reminders why the town needs to do all the diversity work mentioned earlier."

Spell out "plenty of reminders."

"The most unsettling example came in the spring, when members of the town's Diversity, Inclusion, Race and Equity Advisory Committee received a threatening email."

Did we identify the perpetrator? Was this person punished or disciplined or were there "extenuating circumstances?"

"Throughout the year, there were reports of students in the town's schools who were harassed on racial grounds. One widely reported incident involved an adult using inappropriate language at the middle-high school."

How many incidents? Was there evidence of baiting the adult who used "inappropriate language?" If there was baiting, should this make a difference in the outcome for the adult?

"And in the fall, a spate of racially-charged incidents on the Williams College campus caught the attention of the DIRE Committee."

How many incidents constitute a "spate?" What was alleged? What were the outcomes?

Instead of pointing fingers, stirring up drama, and causing hurt, can we not work together to see if racism is as prevalent as some people argue. A litany of "lived experiences" is not to be discounted. Nor is a listing of microaggressions. But additional perspective is sorely needed and outcomes need to be shared with the community.

Donna Carlstrom Wied
Williamstown, Mass.

Editor: Year-end reviews are a summary of important events and issues and there are hot links to the original reporting in each case mentioned.

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Mount Greylock School Committee OKs Updated Policy on Seclusion, Restraint

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:57AM / Tuesday, August 25, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock School Committee recently approved an updated policy on time-outs, seclusion and the physical restraint of students.

The policy is based on updated state regulations that came down last winter. Superintendent Joseph Bergeron told the panel at its August meeting that his office waited on recommendations from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees that were released in May and ran the proposed changes past the district's legal counsel.

That timing — and an expectation from the commonwealth that districts have the updated policy in place for the start of the 2026-27 academic year — led to an expedited process for the School Committee, which did not do a first read with a vote at a subsequent meeting as is its practice.

"Policy JKAA speaks to the ways the school district and our procedures shall abide by the updated state regulations," Bergeron said. "We're not going to have a lot of leeway.

"Nothing about the way we interact with our students on a day-to-day basis is being shifted by this."

For example, the commonwealth does not allow schools to use "seclusion," or, "the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room or area, with or without adult supervision," except some extreme cases, like when, "when student behavior poses an imminent threat of assault, or imminent serious physical harm to self or others, but only if safeguards are accounted for," the updated policy reads.

"From the state's perspective and my perspective, the idea of locking a child in a room without adult supervision is something we've never done," Bergeron said. "And it's something the state wants to make explicitly that nobody ever does."

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