EASTHAMPTON — Mayor Nicole LaChapelle is urging the School Committee to release a March 30 audio recording of comments she made to a high school student in a civics class that her fellow committee members have described as “racist and unacceptable.”
“My remarks have been the subject of much debate and should be heard on their own, in their original delivery,” LaChapelle said in a statement emailed to the Gazette. “The school community deserves to have the right to form their own conclusions about what I said.”
The comments LaChapelle directed to one student in particular have been the subject of much conversation in public meetings and on social media over the past month and were the subject of an executive session held by the School Committee earlier this week.
In the four-minute audio clip reviewed by the Gazette, LaChapelle is invited to offer her thoughts on the performance of students during their practice session for the We the People: The Citizen and Constitution national finals, an academic competition that tests students on their understanding of the U.S. Constitution and legal principles. Throughout the recording, she is heard offering students advice on how “to be seen” and praises their command and knowledge of the material.
At the 1:50-minute mark, LaChapelle tells one student, “Your cadence is a little, it’s … not white. You don’t talk like a white person. Right? And that’s fine. But what you have to do with your physical presence is say like, who f—ing cares?”
Following this visit, the mother of the student wrote a public Facebook post that has since been deleted, alleging that LaChapelle made racist remarks to her daughter in front of the whole class.
LaChapelle later said the comment was intended to strengthen the students’ argument at the class’s upcoming competition by acknowledging factors that are out of their control, such as the bias often faced by people of color, and the comment was interpreted differently by the student and family.
Nearly two weeks after the classroom visit, on April 12, School Committee Chairwoman Cynthia Kwiecinski said the committee would investigate the exchange.
LaChapelle, who serves on the School Committee, responded to the allegations at the April 20 City Council meeting, acknowledging that her comments were “wrong,” and vowed to take steps to “break down barriers.”
In an emailed statement to parents and guardians Wednesday, the School Committee said it intended to hold a closed-door meeting in executive session the previous night to discuss complaints concerning the mayor’s comments, and that LaChapelle had been sent a letter in advance so that she could prepare.
During the regular meeting that night, the mayor read a statement and then announced that the executive session was about her but that she would not attend.
Upon a review of events, the committee also stated that the mayor’s response to the incident was “not timely,” a claim the mayor has refuted.
Now, the mayor is requesting that the committee send a second email to the entire Easthampton public school community releasing “the full four-minute audiotape of my remarks to the civics class and without any commentary.”
Kwiecinski said Friday that she was unaware of the mayor’s request for the committee to release the audio recording. She said that she would personally reach out to LaChapelle and touch base with Superintendent Allison LeClair about the request on Monday.
“The mayor doesn’t talk to the School Committee, so I wasn’t aware,” she said. “That’s a surprise to me.”
In an interview with the Gazette on Thursday, committee member Marin Goldstein said he had heard a portion of the audio clip during the executive session on Tuesday. He said the investigation included a meeting with the students and teachers who were present during the We the People practice session.
LaChapelle’s attorney, Thomas Lesser of the law firm Lesser, Newman, Aleo & Nasser in Northampton, said it was unfair for the School Committee to make a judgment call without listening to the entire recording.
“The School Committee, according to a member quoted in the Gazette yesterday, did not even bother during executive session to listen to the full four-minute audio recording of the mayor’s remarks before issuing a statement condemning her,” Lesser said. “This was not fair. It was not just. No one should play judge and jury without listening to all the available evidence.”
Lesser also questioned the committee’s investigation of the exchange between LaChapelle and the student.
“There is nothing to investigate,” he said. “There is no dispute as to the facts. The audiotape of the mayor speaks for itself. It should be made available by the School Committee to the public.”
Kwiecinski said the investigation was not “technically” completed as LaChapelle has refused to speak to the committee. She acknowledged there has been some back and forth with regard to the timeline of the interaction and the subsequent response, and still hoped that the mayor would communicate with the committee.
“There’s not much more we can do. The School Committee has no power over the mayor,” she said. “The purpose of this (investigation) was to explore what happened. This is something the committee has to speak out on … well, that’s done. Now there’s nothing else we can do.”
Staff writer Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.
