Here’s a link to video from Thursday’s Sepac (Special Education Parents Advisory Council) debate at The Barry Price Center, with eight candidates of the nine school committee candidates (Gail Spector was unable to attend due to illness)
VIDEO: School committee candidates on special ed
by Village 14 | Oct 22, 2017 | School Committee | 4 comments
I got to watch the debate and it was very interesting. I am supporting Matthew Miller, Cyrus Vaghar, Anping Shen, and I am undecided in ward 1. My favorite part was when Anping Shen was talking about parents calling him asking if their child would be punished if they complained about a teacher. He then said, “No! This is America, not China!”
I was lucky enough to sit in the front row for this debate and it was great: Great format, great questions and interesting to watch the candidates in person get up and speak. It really hit home for me that in so many ways, this is, quite simply, a job interview, with them listing their qualifications and outlining how they intend to tackle the job.
Anping Shen’s comment got a positive crowd reaction and reminded me yet again how, through accident of birth and genocide survivors who refused to give up, I’m lucky to be in this geographical area. I once received an email from a recent Chinese immigrant now living in Newton asking for copies of editorial cartoons commenting on the Mayor. He wanted to get them back home somehow to relatives and friends to prove to them that in this country we can criticize those in power and ‘not be imprisoned or killed’.
I was in the audience as well and it was indeed a fascinating experience. I appreciate Kathy Shields showing up even though she is running unopposed. I will be voting for Ray-Canada, Vaghar, Shen, and Miller. I think Vaghar and Shen deserve special attention as the only NPS grad running in a contested SC race this year (underscoring how important it is to have student representation) and a Chinese immigrant (18% of students are Asian, making them the largest minority, yet there is no Asian member of the SC), respectively.
I’m more excited about the school committee election than anything else this year. We have some excellent candidates.