LEWISTON — City Council Representative Linda Scott has requested that School Committee’s attorney investigate the possibility that one or more members is sharing privileged information discussed about specific students in executive sessions with some city councilors.
The request was made toward the end of the roughly half-hour meeting Monday night during her report to the committee and garnered no discussion among committee members.
Recently, several sitting city councilors were in a public setting where information from the committee’s executive session was discussed, Scott said. They referred to a number of student disciplinary hearings that were held in executive session by the committee.
Lewiston City Councilor Linda Scott speaks at a meeting on April 5, 2022. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal file
Councilors have discussed specific information about students involved in these hearings, such as race.
It is not the first time this has happened, Scott said. During budget season, a councilor made a comment about a middle school student’s gender after such information was discussed in a School Committee executive session, she said.
She requested that the city attorney discuss the issue and ramifications to committee members, if such a claim is validated. She is requesting that the attorney meet with the committee as soon as possible. She said she fears it puts the School Committee at risk of being sued, if her concerns are validated.
City councilors have waded in on School Committee matters in recent weeks. In a split vote during a Sept. 19 council meeting, the majority of councilors approved a resolution requiring Scott to “carry a strong message of disapproval” of a partnership between Maine Inside Out and the School Committee that would allow Maine Inside Out to operate inside Lewiston schools again.
Maine Inside Out is an organization that works with youth in the juvenile system to help them create art. It had been working with Lewiston students at the middle school to develop an original screenplay based on their life experiences related to social issues. It is supposed to garner conversation among community members.
Many of the organization’s members were formerly incarcerated and some are felons.
The school administration does not conduct background checks on its members of the organization working with students in Lewiston schools but it enters into an agreement with the organization on how it must operate inside the school and measures it must take to ensure student safety.
There were claims that Marcel LaGrange, 24, was associated with the organization and had contact with Lewiston students in the middle school through the organization. LaGrange is accused of killing two people in Westbrook last June.
While the organization did invite LaGrange to a play it hosted in May at the middle school put on by the students outside of school hours, Superintendent Jake Langlais did not find any valid evidence that LaGrange had contact with students at the school through the organization.
At the September council meeting, Scott said she was uncomfortable with the council’s resolution and said there is no city governance that requires her to adhere to the resolution or dictate how she votes on School Committee initiatives.
She did not mention the resolution during her report at Monday’s meeting.
Scott did not respond to a request Tuesday for further comment about her concerns.
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