Leaders must take on the ‘real work’: addressing bias, bullying in schools

Only in Acton could we stage a moral panic over trash-bag manifestos and alleged grandparental gangsters with a mean streak for civic duty — while mistaking pervasive antisemitism for a PR problem instead of a moral one. 

No, trash bags aren’t hate. They certainly aren’t violence. They’re crude, stupid, and a convenient diversion — a petty offense against taste. Yet outrage is so fragile you’d think redcoats had occupied the Colonial Inn. It might almost be funny if it weren’t led by the very people responsible for recognizing and stopping the real bullying and harm happening under their watch — the only ones who can. If our children are watching, they see adults confuse PR with leadership and fragility with integrity. They see power draping itself in “safety” while the real harm goes unanswered. 

We’ve gone from a superintendent who wouldn’t engage to one who pays for silence and victimhood. The job is to serve the public, not invoice it for the performance. If the scarecrows are protest, they’ve been outperformed by the reaction; if they’re planted, the drama’s going exactly to script. A dozen “scarecrows” shouldn’t send a town into panic. 

The real work still awaits — to protect our kids, confront bias and bullying inside our schools, and address the real harm happening under the district’s roof. The real danger’s revealed in recent mental-health data showing our students act on suicide plans at higher rates than peers elsewhere — and in the face of that, leadership mounts public campaigns for trash bags while children’s real suffering meets only silence. Our leaders are turning the town into a parody — governing by SignUpGenius and orchestrated letters to the editor.

Ultimately the town must decide what will define Acton — how it hides its failures, or how it repairs them.

Deb Kavaler Wysopal

Annursnac Hill Road