HATFIELD — Part of the Hatfield community for four years, Jennifer Bogin says her family has always felt welcome in town until this fall, when promotional materials for religious education classes at the Catholic church were attached to the school newsletter.
“I feel like it was an absolutely unintentional assault toward my family and the way I’m raising my child,” Bogin said at a recent Hatfield School Committee meeting.
Receiving the email from Our Lady of Grace Church about its faith formation programs, Bogin said, the communication on the school listserv illustrated to her that some of her fears about moving to Hatfield from Northampton were being realized, including being lesbian parents raising a Jewish child and coming to a less diverse town, and not being part of the larger religious community.
But Bogin told the committee she understands that, without specific rules that guide materials that can be sent home, the schools can’t discriminate against any specific nonprofit, even though she would prefer to see better separation of church and state.
“I just want to start a conversation. I just feel like it was really upsetting to us,” Bogin said. “No matter what I don’t want my son’s backpack to say you need to be saved in second grade. That’s the way we felt about it. That’s the way we read it.”
Because public comment is not an action item on the agenda, the School Committee couldn’t immediately respond to Bogin’s concerns.
But Committee Chairwoman Christy Boudreau said how and what the schools share in updates from sources that are outside of the school will be something its policy subcommittee reviews at a future meeting.
“The district has a consistent practice of passing along information from local not-for-profit and municipal organizations to families,” Boudreau said.
The current policy that allows a wide range of nonprofits to utilize the schools’ listserv was also explained by Superintendent Michael Wood in his initial response to Bogin’s concerns last month.
“I was aware and approved the flyer for dissemination,” Wood wrote to her. “The Hatfield Public Schools does not discriminate on the dissemination of non-profit, nor do we endorse the contents of such flyers. My error was not making that more clear to recipients.”
This the first time Bogin can recall a flyer coming home in Hatfield that caused her such angst, after her son started in Hatfield in second grade three years ago. The previous three emails this fall were about Parent-Teacher Association events and other school-sponsored activities.
Prior to the meeting, Bogin reached out to state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, who told her that the unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision in May on Shurtleff v. Boston, where the justices ruled that a Christian flag could fly outside Boston City Hall, is what guides Hatfield officials. That decision effectively said that if the policy is that all institutions are given equal access to a forum, religious institutions cannot be barred from having that same equal access.
“If Hatfield’s policy is that all outside groups are able to post on the listserv and have equal access to do so, religious institutions may use the listserv so long as they, and all other posters, abide by any rules and regulations set forth by the superintendent or school committee,” Sabadosa said.
Bogin said in an interview with the Gazette that she loves Hatfield and her son is thriving in the schools, but she would still like to see a policy developed on communication with parents, so that no children or families feel excluded in a similar way.
“These are microagressions we need to be conscious about, especially when they are directed at our children,” Bogin said. “This feels like it’s about being alienated from my community.”
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
