Teachers Union To Protest 'Union Busting' In Falmouth: Patch PM

FALMOUTH, MA — It's Monday, May 3. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Educators from across Massachusetts said they will protest Falmouth school administrators to defend teachers who have filed grievances against the district.
• Massachusetts is closing four of the state's seven mass vaccination sites by June, including sites in Danvers, Foxborough, Natick and at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.
• Tufts University in Medford is investigating two incidents of racial hate reported on campus last week.
• Helicopters started dropping oral rabies vaccine baits in southeastern Massachusetts and on Cape Cod Monday.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story

Educators from across Massachusetts said they will protest Falmouth school administrators to defend teachers who have filed grievances against the district.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) will hold a rally at 5 p.m. Tuesday outside Falmouth High School to support the Falmouth Educators' Association. According to MTA officials, Superintendent Lori Duerr tried to "interfere and restrain the union from exercising its rights under state law." Union officials said Duerr also retaliated against Falmouth Education Association President Lori Andrade when she filed contractual grievances on behalf of teachers.

Duerr denied Andrade's placement on leave had anything to do with union activities. She described it as a separate personnel matter.

"The decision to place an employee who is also an officer of the FEA on paid administrative leave was not an action taken against the union," Duerr said in an email sent to school staff Sunday. "I assure you that the allegation that the central office is engaged in 'union busting' could not be further from the truth. The Administration unequivocally supports all our unions and their work to represent you."

Read the full story.

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Monday's Other Top Stories

Vigil organizers say MA teen was lynched: Organizers of a rally and vigil scheduled for Thursday say a 16-year-old girl was beaten and lynched in Hopkinton last month.The rally's organizers include former Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson and Violence in Boston, a nonprofit. Mikayla Miller,16, died sometime over the weekend of April 17 in Hopkinton.

State closing mass vaccination sites: Massachusetts is closing four of the state's seven mass vaccination sites by June, including sites in Danvers, Foxborough, Natick and at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. Gov. Charlie Baker said Massachusetts is outpacing the rest of the country by "leaps and bounds" in COVID-19 vaccinations and will hit its goal of vaccinating 4.1 million people within weeks. About 1.2 million of those doses have been administered at the mass vaccination sites.

A different kind of vaccination effort: Helicopters started dropping oral rabies vaccine baits in southeastern Massachusetts and on Cape Cod Monday. The Cape Cod & Southeast Massachusetts Rabies Task Force is planing to drop 68,000 baits through May 8. Although the baits are not typically harmful to people or pets, residents are asked to obey leash laws and call 877-722-6725 if a bait is found.

Hate incidents on campus: Tufts University in Medford is investigating two incidents of racial hate reported on campus last week. In the first incident, several Asian students were walking along Professors Row when they were "verbally assaulted with hateful anti-Asian rhetoric from the occupants of a passing vehicle." Members of a Tufts sports team also found a large swastika painted on the Bello Field shed, according to a letter from President Tony Monaco to the campus community.

Learn more about getting a COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts at Patch's information hub.

By The Numbers

70: The number of drivers and mechanics for Shaw's and Star Market who went on strike Monday. The drivers have not had a contract since October.