Watertown Schools Start Internal Review After Racist Bullying

WATERTOWN, MA — The Watertown School District commissioned an outside, independent administrative review of the district's handling of recent "racially-motivated bullying" incidents as well as a complete review of the district's bullying and disciplinary policies.

The district released a statement on Wednesday about the commissioned review, but did not disclose the specifics of the bullying incident. Watertown Public Schools Superintendent Dede Galdston told Patch the district could not release specifics of the ongoing investigations regarding students. The decision to pursue an independent review was made "in response to concerns that were raised by community members," Galdston told Patch.

"Although not related, we did have racially charged zoom bombings at the beginning of the year, but have not had any since due to tightening up our Zoom safety protocols," Galdston said.

In a statement Galdston said the district will carefully review the analysis and consider the opinion of outside experts.

"It is unacceptable for any member of our Watertown Public Schools community to feel unsafe or to feel unsupported when they have the courage to speak up. Recent events have given me significant pause, and while I do not believe the Watertown Public Schools is alone in responding to acts of hate and racism, it is simply not enough to say 'we did our best' or 'we followed our usual policies,' We must be willing to review our practices and procedures," Galdston said. "We must look deeply within ourselves and within our policies to learn how we can better ensure that we are fostering a safe and nurturing education community for all. With that in mind, we are committed to a thorough finding of fact and we will carefully review and consider the recommendations of the outside experts."

A community forum will be held on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. for residents to voice their opinions. The forum will be held over Zoom.

For the Watertown Administrative Review, two highly-educated, respected professionals will each take a portion of the situation. John Dristiliaris has been retained to construct a timeline and analyze the district's response to recent incidents of racially-motivated bullying. Dristiliaris has more than 30 years of government and educational experience. He holds a Doctorate in Leadership Studies from Franklin Pierce University and is a faculty member at Southern New Hampshire University. He previously led a review of alleged racially bullying in the Hampton Public Schools in New Hampshire.

Additionally, Claudia Rinaldi, Ph.D. has been retained to conduct a complete review of the policies and procedures Watertown Public Schools as they related to diversity, bullying and student discipline. She will compare the district's approach to national best practices and make recommendations where needed. Rinaldi is the Program Chair of Education at Lasell University. She is a nationally-renown expert on education and school reform efforts.

At the conclusion of the review, the District will be provided a comprehensive report, which will outline what occurred and what, if any, shortcomings there were in the District's response. This information will be used to inform policies and procedures moving forward.

The administrative review process is expected to last approximately 60-90 days.