Riverhead’s Anti-Bias Task Force is planning to work with Riverhead Central School District to promote harmony in the community.
The “umbrella name” for the task force’s work will be “harmony sessions” consisting of “sensitivity training and circle of healing,” Anti-Bias Task Force Chairperson Mark McLaughlin said at the group’s monthly meeting Monday night at Riverhead Town Hall.
Task Force members will attend the superintendent’s conference day on Nov. 7, McLaughlin said. “They want us to be a part of the program.”
Beyond that event, McLaughlin suggested the task force look for “pockets of opportunity” at middle school and high school events, such as football games. Those kinds of events present opportunities of the task force to present messages of unity and positivity to students and families, McLaughlin said.
The task force chairperson said he and task force member Jasmine Esquilin met with the principals of the high school and middle school to discuss their ideas. McLaughlin said he has also spoken to the acting superintendent about how the ABTF can help the school district.
The aim is to educate people and prevent incidents like the one in which three teens reportedly called very young children the N-word and pushed one of them to the ground during a Blue Waves varsity football home game Sept. 9.
ABTF members in attendance at Monday’s night’s meeting — besides McLaughlin and Esquilin, Harley Abrams and Tom Najdzion — voted to approve participation in superintendent’s conference day and pursuing harmony sessions in the school district.
Town Board liaison Council Member Ken Rothwell and Police Department liaison David Hegermiller also attended the meeting, along with two community members interested in becoming members, Carolyn Eddings and Patrice Stokley.
The group also discussed hosting community events focusing on the foods of different cultures and different cultural customs, a concept McLaughlin dubbed “Food Unites.” It would also be a good way to introduce the community to different Riverhead restaurants that offer different cuisines.
McLaughlin organized a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration last week at Antigua Café on East Main Street, in part for that reason. People who attended got a chance to meet the owners of that eatery and sample their foods. The event was attended by local elected officials, members of the Riverhead BID and Riverhead Chamber of Commerce and other guests.
Rothwell loved the “food unites” idea and said he could envision having an outdoor food festival in the town square next year where residents could enjoy foods and music representing cultures from all over the world, along the lines of the World Showcase at Epcot in Disney World, but “on a small level.”
Before the meeting ended, Abrams asked about the status of the ABTF’s planned purchase of books for each of the Riverhead school district’s elementary buildings.
Abrams was the only task force member present at Monday night’s meeting who was involved in the task force before the Town Board terminated some members, including its leadership, and appointed new members to replace them. Abrams was previously a liaison to ABTF from Temple Israel of Riverhead. He was appointed as a member when the Town Board made the membership changes.
McLaughlin said he had circulated the list of proposed books to the members of the task force for their review and consideration and would ask them to vote on the matter at the November meeting.
It was not clear from the discussion at Monday night’s meeting that the newly reconstituted task force supports the book donation project.
Member Najdzion questioned whether some of the books were appropriate for elementary school children. “Some of them are a little bit questionable,” he said, without elaborating. After the meeting, Najdzion said he wasn’t sure some were age-appropriate.
Rothwell questioned how the books were selected and who selected them. Abrams said the task force asked the school librarians for books they wanted to add to the school libraries, and that’s how the list was compiled. Rothwell said he thinks some former task force committee members had a hand in compiling the list.
Rothwell also questioned whether the ABTF should spend its entire annual budget of $2,500 on the purchase of books.
“You have the school district with a multi-million dollar budget,” Rothwell said. He said he thought the task force should recommend books to the school and the school should pay for them. “But that’s for you guys to decide,” Rothwell said. “The Town Board is in no way interfering. But it’s like, what is it that you want to do?”
Rothwell also noted that the book list was submitted to the Town Board by an ABTF comprising members whose terms had all expired on Dec. 31. He felt the matter should be decided by a duly constituted board with current terms, he said.
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