The Board of Education will hold a special meeting Tuesday, May 28, 2013, to deal with complaints that its only black member has been the target of racist comments and jokes by other members.
According to several sources who spoke with Manchester Patch, Ron Atwater, a Republican BOE member who was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Merrill Kidd in December of 2012, has been on the receiving end of several racially tinged and inappropriate comments by two other members of the board. Atwater is the only black member of the nine-member school board.
The comments have been made by the two other members of Atwater's own party, Michael Crockett and Deborah Hagenow, according to Lou Kelly, a member of Students of Color, a group that advocates for students of color who are treated unfairly in the Manchester Public School Systems.
Atwater could not be reached for comment about the issue over the Memorial Day Weekend, and Kelly told Patch he had not personally spoken with Atwater over the issue, but that the information relayed to him was troubling and enough to prompt Tuesday's special meeting of the school board.
"When issues like this pop up in the community then our group is notified that these things are going on and we then decide just what it is that we can do to assist the people that are involved if they need assistance," Kelly told Patch.
Kelly said he has received numerous complaints from third-party sources that both Crockett and Hagenow have repeatedly made off-the-cuff comments and jokes pertaining to Atwater's race in the presence of other school board members, sometimes even during confidential executive sessions.
"This thing that has happened, I guess it's been going on for some time," Kelly said.
When asked if he thought the motivation for the complaints could be politically based, Kelly said he did not think so because both Crockett and Hagenow are Republicans, as is Atwater.
"When you start talking about people of color and it becomes racial, then it's outside of the box," Kelly said. "When it comes to Democrats and Republicans and how they feel about each other, we all know. But when it becomes personal there are issues of concern here."
Crockett and Atwater did not return calls seeking comment over the weekend.
Board of Education Chairman Chris Pattacini refused to discuss the issue with Patch or the reason why the special meeting was conveyed, citing it as "a board-related matter."
The item appears on the agenda as follows: "Discussion and possible action regarding conduct of board members (Note: The Board expects conducting the discussing portion in executive session)."
Pattacini noted that under Connecticut's Freedom of Information laws the matter would have to be discussed in public if the accused requested. When asked if Atwater was the complainant, Pattacini declined to answer.
Atwater was appointed by his party to replace Kidd in December of 2012, after she resigned from the school board following a controversial arrest and reports that she harassed another school board member.
The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Lincoln Center Hearing Room at 494 Main St.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the special meeting would have to be held in public if the complainant requested. It is actually the accused that would have to make such a request.
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