By Erin Tiernan — Erin@theconcordbridge.org
A Black Latina School Committee representative says she is “hurt and disgusted” after an audience member hurled a racial slur at her after the board voted in favor of a compromise middle school name change.
Police responded to the Ripley Administrative Building on May 21 after Ayesha Lawton, one of two METCO representatives, reported a woman at the meeting called her a “glorified Oreo” as the committee headed into executive session, according to a police report provided to The Concord Bridge through a public records request.
In an interview, Lawton told the Bridge she felt singled out for supporting “Concord Middle School” over naming the school for Civil War-era education advocate Ellen Garrison.
“This has been uncomfortable, and these people have been unwelcoming,” Lawton said.
“We shouldn’t have to have these conversations,” continued Lawton, who was herself a METCO student. “I wish people would be more sensitive. This is a community that I’ve loved for over 20 years, and to experience this… I’m just hurt and disgusted.”
At the May meeting, Lawton had argued that in Concord in 2024, “I still [have] to explain that I own a home — that I’m a Black woman who owns a home… We have a lot of work to do, and putting a name on a building is not going to change anything.”
The name-calling occurred as the School Committee was transitioning to an executive session.
Video of the meeting posted by Minuteman Media Network shows the committee getting ready for the closed session around the one-hour, eight-minute mark. The video then jumps, and Lawton vanishes from the screen.
The Bridge has filed a public records request for an unedited version of the meeting video and a justification for the edit.
The School Committee voted in February to name the building “Concord Middle School,” disappointing those in favor of naming it for Concord-born Garrison, a Black education and civil rights advocate. Backers pointed out she would would be the first person of color honored with the naming of a public building.
In what they called an effort to reach a compromise after Town Meeting, voters pressed them to name the school for Garrison, committee members voted May 21 in favor of “The Ellen Garrison Building at The Concord Middle School.”
The vote came one day after the Select Board approved a non-binding school naming ballot question for an unrelated June special election. The board subsequently removed the naming item.
‘Intimidated, hurt, humiliated’
The heavily redacted police report did not identify Lawton or anyone else involved in the incident. Police declined to provide names because an investigation determined no crime was committed, Captain Brian Goldman told The Bridge.
A joint statement from the School Committee and superintendent identified the target of the racist name-calling as a woman who is one of the district’s two METCO representatives.
The other METCO rep, Domingos DaRosa, supported putting Garrison’s name on the building; he was not at the meeting. METCO reps are non-voting.
The police report said the meeting-goer grabbed Lawton’s hand while delivering the slur and that the incident was captured on video without audio.
An officer wrote that Lawton was “visibly upset,” repeatedly telling police, “I don’t feel safe” and “I don’t feel comfortable.” The report also says Lawton expressed concern about what she called a “mob mentality” that was becoming increasingly “nasty and aggressive.”
According to the report, Lawton told police she contacted officers to document the incident as she didn’t want the behavior ignored “just because [redacted name] is also a [person] of color.”
In their joint statement, Superintendent Laurie Hunter and committee members said that the board “will not tolerate incidents of disrespect to our members in any shape or form.
Lawton said she wishes people would be “more open to compromise and working together in a positive manner.”
As a School Committee rep, she urged parents to think about how they speak to their children about the Garrison controversy — and remind youth that “people should be respectful, mindful of everyone, and more inclusive.”
