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Controversy has erupted over a 6-year-old mural, resulting in a slew of online posts that to some, appear to be a concentrated campaign of hate.
In a statement to the Select Board earlier this week, School Committee Chair Tim Matthews stated he was speaking solely in a personal capacity regarding the student-created-banner hanging in the McCall Middle School that drew coordinated attacks on social media.
“That banner was hung more than five years ago to affirm the school’s commitment to welcoming its LGBTQIA+ community members,” he said. “The attacks were amplified by known extremists from outside Winchester, resulting in ongoing threats against our educators and school leaders.”
The mural takes a whimsical approach at identifying LGBTQIA+ identities with characters like genderfluid giraffe, nonbinary bee and transgender dragon.
The brouhaha broke out when a parent allegedly shared photos of it with “Libs of TikTok,” which according to multiple news outlets, is a social media account run by Chaya Raichik, who uses it to run a disinformation campaign mocking and deriding people in the left-wing and LGBTQ+ communities.
There was an online attack on McCall Principal James Lin as well. A Libs of TikTok post implied that “woke MA principal admits to pushing LGBTQ+ agenda on children” because he approved the banner. The post went on to state the entire district should be investigated. It doesn’t say by who or for what, however.
The post included an emailed response by Lin, where he explained the banner was created by students in the QSA (Queer-Straight Alliance) Club and the Social Justice Club who wanted to honor friends and family members whose identities have been historically marginalized.
He also noted the banner was not connected to any curriculum, but was aimed at sending a message that everyone was welcome and respected at McCall Middle School.
The posts didn’t stop at attacking the banner, however. A post dated Sept. 30 shows photos of classroom doors and doorways decorated with LGBTQ+ flags, posters proclaiming McCall for All and welcoming all sizes, ages, abilities, genders, cultures, ethnicities, language, religions, perspectives and people and in at least one case, a teacher’s name.
The Libs post declared the photos showed “how the entire school is filled with woke LGBTQ propaganda.”
But Libs TikTok wasn’t the only social media taking shots at the banner. On Facebook’s “Massachusetts Informed Parents” an anonymous poster offered an update on the “Winchester middle school situation,” and went on to talk about how her 11-year-old told them about a “big sexuality poster hanging up in the school library that featured different sexuality’s featuring animals. We took pictures and it’s so discouraging.”
Among the replies, which were not kind to the school, was a local voice who wrote, “I'm embarrassed to live in Winchester. The people responsible for this should be fired.”
Superintendent Dr. Frank Hackett could not be reached for comment regarding the issue.
Not alone
Winchester is not the only community that has been tested like this. Matthews said Belmont and Lexington recently discovered racist and anti-Semitic graffiti on school walls.
He also said that whether “hatred arrives as an outright slur or as a dog whistle, coded language meant to stir fear of a group while letting the speaker deny intent, the effect is the same.”
And no one in Winchester should feel unsafe, unwelcome or unseen, he added.
“So let me say plainly, only in my personal capacity, I stand with our LGBTQIA+ students, our students of color, our Jewish students, our immigrant students, and with every student and family this rhetoric targets,” Matthews told the Select Board. “Manufactured outrage and outside pressure should not weaken Winchester’s resolve to be committed to its values, and coded language must not be allowed to do quietly what more open forms of discrimination are too ashamed to do in the daylight.”
Matthews thanked the board for its ongoing partnership in establishing a Human Rights Statement and its support for the Human Rights Commission. He asked the body to keep the momentum going.
“I ask that this board stand with us publicly and consistently against every form of intolerance in Winchester, whether it targets our students, our neighbors, or our public servants,” he said. “And when incidents like these occur, I ask that we respond together quickly and visibly, so that every resident knows where their town stands.”
Matthews said he would be bringing a resolution to the School Committee at its next meeting, which is Monday, Oct. 5, 6 p.m. at the Parkhurst School. He said he will ask his fellow board members to essentially commit to the statement he made before the board.
And while Matthews told the Select Board he would leave it up to them to possibly also take action in the future, he said Oct. 2 that he was sharing his resolution with the board in hopes they would adopt it as well.
“This is a very troubling incident. I want to make sure, as we are doing right now, that we continue to support both the students who are still in our system, as well as those who graduated,” Matthews said. “In the case of this particular banner, it was created primarily at this point by alumni of our schools, and so we are going to continue to stand strong as best we can and look forward to working with you all in taking those steps.”
