Harassment and dehumanization of elected public officials is unacceptable in the Town of Acton and will not be tolerated.  On behalf of the Town of Acton, the Board of Selectmen unanimously condemns the hateful, racist language that School Committee members Kyra Wilson Cook of Acton and Evelyn Abayaah-Issah of Boxborough, have been subjected to during a School Committee meeting for the second time in three weeks. The attack on Kyra and Evelyn is an attack against the community, including all elected members of the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee as well as the 250 community members who serve on Acton’s nearly 50 boards, committees and commissions.  Together with Town Meeting we are part of the oldest, continuous form of local government in the world.  We stand together.

The Board of Selectmen pledges to make available the necessary financial resources to the Acton Police Department so that the police may pursue and complete their investigations of the December 17 and January 7 racist incidents.  

It is sad and disappointing that despite our increasingly diverse society and very diverse town, racial and ethnic stereotyping persists.  It is incumbent on all of us locally—the Board of Selectmen, Local Government, individuals, parents, our schools, our houses of worship and our businesses to impress upon our children and adult neighbors and friends that racism and racist acts have no place in Acton.  It must stop.