Over 350 Students Sign Letter Denouncing Racism In Acton

ACTON, MA — Acton students are keeping the conversation about racism and inclusion alive in school and in the community.

Over 350 students from R.J. Grey Junior High School signed a letter condemning the racist attacks that targeted School Committee members in December meetings. The letter, authored by eighth graders Sara Karp and Sneha Iyer, calls on the community to step up and confront racism in both Acton and Boxborough. The letter also thanks School Committee members Kyra Wilson-Cook and Evelyn Abayaah-Issah, who were targeted by the hate speech.

Karp told Patch that she and Iyer wrote the letter to keep the conversation about race and inclusion going in town.

"As time passed after the incidents we felt like the conversation was fizzling out, and some of the promises made by town officials started to feel empty," Kasp said, "But mostly we wanted to write the letter to thank, Ms. Abayaah-Issah, and Ms. Cook, for their service to our town."

The School Committee has since updated its public comment rules. Last month, Wilson-Cook told Patch that she hopes her neighbors in Acton and Boxborough would sustain the difficult conversation around race and racism in town.

The student letter reads:

"We, the undersigned students of R.J. Grey Junior High School, denounce the hate-filled acts that occurred at the School Committee meetings on December 17th and January 7th. These acts of racist abuse are unacceptable in every way.

To Ms. Cook and Ms. Abayaah-Issah, we want to say this: we are immensely grateful for your presence on our School Committee. We feel incredibly privileged to have diverse voices like yours representing us. We admire your strength and courage.

To the rest of our community, we would like to say this: we as a community have much work to do. Acton and Boxborough are not free of racism. These events were not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a much bigger problem. Regardless of who the perpetrator was, we do not get to walk away from these events and forget about them.

To those in our community who believe that racism does not exist, we are asking you to reflect on these recent incidents and past events of racism in our community. As time passes, and we get farther away from when these acts were committed we have a choice to make. We can either turn a blind eye and dismiss these events as being in our past, or we take this as an opportunity to strengthen our community. We urge you to do the latter. We are calling on everyone to learn from this, grow from this, and help our community heal from this."