Monday’s Board of Education meeting was heated. The Staples High School library’s banned books display was one reason. Another was the board’s vote against adding that issue to their already long agenda.
But residents were allowed to speak during the public session, before the first agenda item. Nine did.
Midway through the discussion, a man in a beige coat moved quickly toward a teenage girl. Lilly Weisz was taking photos for Inklings, the school newspaper.
He stood menacingly over her. “He was really, really intimidating,” one observer said.
Two Westport Public Schools staff members — waiting for a later agenda item — got up, to stand nearby.
Superintendent of Schools Thomas Scarice saw what was happening. He left his seat, and stood next to the student for several minutes. “He wanted to make sure she was safe,” a meeting attendee said.
Superintendent of Schools Thomas Scarice stands between an Inklings reporter and a man who had moved intimidatingly toward her. (Contributed photo)
One person at the meeting was so worried, he called 911.
Eventually, the man left.
Lilly says, “As a journalist, we’re trained to expect anything from anyone. There was a lot of tension at the meeting, and there are a feelings about journalists all around the nation.”
She says the man approached her, and asked why she was taking pictures. She explained she was with the school paper. “I’m here to gather as much information as I can, and write an unbiased article.”
She felt “aggression toward me.” However, Lilly says, after other people talked to him, he apologized.
“I don’t think he represents his entire side,” she notes. “People from both sides thanked me afterward for reporting on the issue. Overall, I felt supported by the community. I think people wanted me to succeed.”
Lilly’s story will appear in the next print edition of Inklings.
The paper’s co-advisor Mary Elizabeth Fulco says, “I am extremely proud of my Inklings reporter, Lilly Weisz, for her demonstrated maturity, professionalism and courage.”
Several residents contacted “06880” yesterday, saying they had never seen behavior like that. One called it “appalling, and abhorrent.”
We all know that over the past few years, social norms, civility and public discourse have deteriorated.
Up to now, behavior like that has happened in other places.
On Monday night, it was in full display at an open town meeting.
Right here in our town.
But then the boys returned. They ripped the sign from the ground again, threw it onto Jesup Road, and took turns jumping on it. Then they flung it onto the middle of Jesup Green, before finally leaving.