BPS Program Was 'Weird, Uncomfortable, And Cult-Like' | The HUB

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Good morning, Boston! It's Thursday, May 27. Today we're watching the ongoing drama between Acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey and embattled Boston Police Commissioner Dennis White. We're wondering whether yesterday's ESPN scoop about Donald Trump and the Patriots is newsworthy. And we're hoping the weather forecasters are wrong about the rainy holiday weekend.

But First...

The Boston School Committee released an independent investigator's report this week into accusations by students of emotional abuse by adults running a youth advocacy reports. "Re-Evaluation Counseling" was part of the school system's prestigious Boston Student Advisory Council, but the investigator concluded the program's sessions were "weird, uncomfortable, and cult-like."

The Boston Globe interviewed several students who had participated in the sessions. One former student told of being taken to an overnight retreat in Newton after being pressured to join by a school administrator. At the retreat, "white adults asked the Black teenager to wrestle out his emotions on a gym mat with them." Others said program leader Jenny Sazama encouraged them "to share intensely personal information in a group, and to cry, yell, or scream, with no professional follow-up."

The first complaints against Sazama and her co-director Maria Estrada, a BPS employee, were recorded at least a decade ago. No action was taken until March, when the student representative to the Boston School Committee abruptly resigned then accused Sazama of emotional abuse in a news conference.

Read the Boston Public Schools report on the Boston Globe's Website.

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Not So Fast, Mayor Janey

Acting Mayor Kim Janey can't fire Boston Police Commissioner Dennis White until he's given time to appeal Tuesday's ruling by Superior Court Judge Heidi Brieger that had seemingly given her the green light to get rid of the city's top cop.

On Wednesday, Brieger granted a motion from White's attorney, who plans to appeal Tuesday's ruling to a single justice of the Massachusetts Court of Appeals, according to the Boston Globe. Janey has said she plans to fire White, saying he is unqualified to lead the department in light of domestic violence accusations.

Eat fresh: Patch's 2021 Massachusetts Farmers Market Guide

Check It Out

48 forced from homes after Dorchester fire: A fast-moving fire in Dorchester Wednesday forced 48 people from their homes and damaged five buildings. The first call for what would become a seven-alarm fire came at 11:15 a.m. Three firefighters and one resident were taken to the hospital with minor injuries related to the heat, the Boston Globe reported.

He's not buying it: Longtime Patriots beat writer Tom Curran says ESPN's story that Donald Trump offered campaign contributions from Robert Kraft to the late U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter if Specter dropped his Spygate investigation are much ado about nothing. "And after the dots are connected in the intended way, I guess indignation is supposed to follow?" Curran writes on NBC Boston. "We’re supposed to be aghast that a billionaire businessman -- well-established as a guy willing to inject himself into anything that might somehow benefit him -- made a call to a senator who liked nothing more than a good donation and said there would 'be a lot of money in Palm Beach?' if he toned down the Patriots attacks?"

Rage, Foo Fighters rejoin Boston Calling lineup

Boston Calling organizers teased us on Monday that the event — which the coronavirus canceled in 2020 and 2021 — would make a big announcement Monday. Some even speculated that announcement would be a fall date for the festival's return.

In the end, however, Boston Calling announced the headliners for next year's show, which were the same bands scheduled for last year's canceled show: Foo Fighters and Rage Against The Machine, with a third headliner and the rest of the 60 or so bands on the bill to be announced at a later date.

And, oh yeah, a limited number of "early-bird" tickets are now on sale for the festival on Boston Calling's Website.

The Rundown

• What I'm reading: Terrence Doyle's ode to Cumberland Farms coffee on Eater.
• What I'm watching: "Black Monday" on Showtime. The current season, which was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, resumed last Sunday.
• What I'm eating: A Massachusetts classic: the Fluffernutter.
• What I'm listening to: "Not Afraid," by Eminem, as performed at the 2018 Boston Calling festival (NSFW: contains explicit lyrics).

Weather

The hot, summer-like weather will not stay with us for the unofficial start of summer this weekend. Temperatures will only get as high as 65 over the three-day holiday weekend, and there's a chance of rain on each day, including Monday.

Dave Copeland is Patch's regional editor for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island and is filling in for Mike Carraggi as curator of the HUB today. Mike will be back tomorrow.