Belmont community responds to recent racial and hate incidents
Wicked Local
Belmont Public School students returned to in person learning full time a little more than one month ago. During this short time there have been nearly 10 hate and racial incidents involving middle and high school students. These incidents include racial and homophobic graffiti on the Butler and Wellington Elementary School buildings and Chenery Middle School playground, an Asian student getting spit upon at the Chenery Middle School and two threatening Tik Tok videos, one where a student threatens to kill every popular white girl in her grade and the other where a student posts, “I’m homophobic” and “Why haven’t we mass murd3red all g@ys yet?”
Nearly three dozen people rallied for racial equality in Belmont’s Waverley Square Sunday evening, more than three months after a man of color was allegedly killed by a white man in a road rage incident in the town.
COS Indigenous Peoples Day endorsement
Community Organized for Solidarity
The members of Community Organized for Solidarity support the petition addressed to Select Board Chair Roy Epstein to officially change the name from “Columbus Day” to “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” in the town of Belmont.
On Jan. 29, members of COS discussed the following reasons why we adamantly support this change:
• Celebrating Columbus Day contributes to the miseducation of the Belmont community because it ignores the genocide and enslavement of native peoples at the hands of white settlers like Christopher Columbus.
• Celebrating “Indigenous Peoples” encourages the Belmont community to understand and appreciate the cultures and contributions of Native Americans to the history of the U.S. and to our region of Massachusetts.
Belmont activist groups hosts Black History Month triva night wickedlocal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wickedlocal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Hundreds Gather In Belmont To Remember Henry Tapia And Decry Racial Hatred
A crowd gathered in Belmont s Cushing Square for a vigil for Henry Tapia.
Edgar B. Herwick III/
Hundreds gathered on a chilly Thursday evening in Belmontâs Cushing Square to speak out against racial hatred and remember Henry Tapia.
Tapia, a 35-year old black and Latino man, was killed in Belmont earlier this week after an apparent road rage incident. The suspect, Dean Kapsalis, allegedly hurled a racial slur before getting in his pickup truck and running Tapia over.
â[Tapia] was a beloved brother, a beloved son, a beloved father,â said Sarah Bilodeau, of the group