Westwood Community Coalition for Combating Hate

Over the last month, you may have heard me talk about joining the Westwood Community Coalition for Combating Hate, an initiative spearheaded by the Westwood Public School administration.  This coalition came about because of a rise of hate incidents throughout the Westwood school system, including antisemitic, racist, and homophobic graffiti and language.  While each of these incidents have been addressed by the schools individually, the administration recognized a larger pattern and realized a new approach was needed.  This spring, I was invited to join the school system’s new coalition efforts as one of our community’s faith leaders.  The coalition steering committee has met throughout the month of May, and the work has now shifted to invite members of the wider community to be a part of the coalition’s work over the summer.

For context, the Westwood school system has been hard at work teaching about diversity and

inclusion as a part of their commitment to creating a safe environment for all students.  I’ve been impressed to learn of the many ways in which our schools have celebrated the diversity present in our community while also educating our students about the harm that comes with hate speech and actions.

But the formation of this coalition recognizes the limitations of only doing this work at school.  While the school day may seem long when you’re in the middle of it, our school only captures the attention of our kids for a small percentage of their year; much more of their time is spent beyond the walls of the school.  Thus, there’s been a recognition of a shared responsibility: to truly create a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment for all of our youth, we need to reflect that more deeply in our words and actions in the wider community.  And what I’ve observed in my time here in Westwood is that there is a deep commitment in this community toward these ideals.  And yet, these incidents of hate still occur among us, fostering a dehumanizing sense of fear and harm.

I joined this coalition because I think it is important to recognize the shared responsibility among our entire Westwood community to ensure that every student feels safe when coming to school to learn.  Our shared responsibility extends to creating an environment throughout our entire community that speaks to that sense of safety and belonging for every student, and indeed every person, both inside the school system and beyond it, into the wider community.

It is in that sense that I invite you to be a part of this important work in our community whether you have children in the school system or not.  There are three community subcommittees, plus a student subcommittee, and we want participants in these subcommittees from across our diverse community to be a part of deepening that sense of safety and belonging in our community.  The first subcommittee is Education, focusing on designing training modules for faculty and community leaders.  The second subcommittee is Policy & Reporting, focusing on reviewing reporting incidents and establishing transparency protocols.  The third subcommittee is Community Engagement, focusing on creating town-wide unity events and communication.  I am participating in the Community Engagement committee.

We are still in the early stages of this work, so what we start with this summer may not be what we end up with in the fall and beyond.  That’s because we’re interested in finding what’s most helpful, even if it’s not our first thought or first choice.   This work may take some time, but I am excited to get started, and I am reminded that the primary feeling expressed by our coalition members when we first got together was hope.  Seeing people committed to making our community safer for everyone, committed to making sure everyone feels like they belong, indeed gives me hope for an even brighter future.

To join in the efforts of this coalition, you can talk with or email me, and we’ll jump into this journey of hope together.

Pastor JT