Students from four Wayne County schools participated as part of a near 200-member middle school honor choir that included a total of 11 schools from six counties.
5/12/2021
Blackstone mom: Parents need to ‘wake up’ on racist bullying
Erika Richardson, of Blackstone, is pictured here with her two kids, ages 13 and 10. Richardson said her daughter experienced bullying at Hartnett Middle School related to her race.
BLACKSTONE – A Blackstone mother says the community needs to do a better job of addressing racism after her daughter experienced racist comments and bullying at school.
Erika Richardson is the mother of a 13-year-old student at Hartnett Middle School. She said her daughter, who is biracial, started experiencing racist taunts and bullying a few years ago when she was in elementary school.
“The kids just started, ‘Oh, your hair looks a certain way.’ It started off like that and then the kids got a little older, started calling her the n-word, calling her a slave. One girl told her to go kill herself,” she said.
3/10/2021
Town officials: ‘We hear the frustration’
BLACKSTONE – Three weeks ago, the COVID-19 situation in Blackstone seemed to be looking up. Cases were trending down statewide, and the Blackstone Board of Health, in partnership with the Council on Aging and other town departments, held its first vaccine clinic for residents age 75 and older at Hartnett Middle School.
However, even as elderly residents made their way through the vaccination clinic on Feb. 18, local officials were already scrambling to figure out their next steps. The day earlier, towns were notified the state would no longer provide the vaccine to most local clinics, instead urging them to steer residents toward state-run sites.