Lowell School Committee member resigns after using anti-Semitic slur on TV
By Travis Andersen Globe Staff,Updated February 26, 2021, 4:23 p.m.
Email to a Friend
Robert Hoey Jr., 66, a retired correctional officer, announced his resignation in a Facebook video, clad in an Army sweatshirt while standing between two slabs of rock, since, he said, heâs caught between âa rock and a hard place.â
âAs of today, Iâm resigning from the Lowell School Committee,â Hoey said, one day after telling the Globe he wouldnât step down despite calls from local officials for him to resign. âOoh, does that hurt. Because I love to advocate for teachers, students, families.â
Wicked Local
Henry Tapia of Boston, who was struck and killed by a vehicle last week in what is being called a hate crime, was remembered in a vigil by Community Organized for Solidarity on Jan. 21.
Hundreds gathered on Common Street in Cushing Square between Trapelo and Payson Roads holding Black Lives Matter signs and photos of Tapia, who was 35 when he was struck by a car operated by 54-year-old Dean Kapsalis of Hudson at around 4:22 p.m. on Jan. 19 on Upland Road in Belmont. Tapia was conscious when emergency workers first arrived, but he later died at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
WOBURN - In a recent setback to the crusade of fellow member Andrew Lipsett, the School Committee firmly refused to sanction a proposed MCAS resolution that calls upon state officials to suspend the use of the exam for three years.
During their latest remote gathering, the School Commitee in a 6-to-1 vote opposed adoption of a declaration that would urge the Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to institute the following MCAS regulation changes:
⢠Eliminate the planned administration of the testing for the current year in light of the extreme challenges posed by COVID-19;
⢠Hold all high school upperclassmen harmless from the state s MCAS graduation competency mandate, which requires high schoolers to pass three 10th grade exams to obtain a diploma;