In an email to all Brookline High School students, staff and families on Thursday, Nov. 21, Head of School Anthony Meyer announced the administration’s decision to postpone the Day of Racial Reform and Solidarity (DoRRS) from Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, to January of 2025.
Meyer attributed the decision to “the need to engage in further risk assessment with school and district leaders as well as our Brookline Police partners” and “the need to clarify the purpose of our DoRRS program.”
The decision comes after controversy surrounding a student speaker set to give a pre-recorded speech at the upcoming DoRRS. Many parents and community members spoke during the public comment portion of a Brookline School Committee (BSC) meeting on Thursday, Nov. 14 of fears that the student’s speech—which will not be released outside of school—will be antisemitic and not vetted properly by staff, based in part on a social media post that showed the student speaking at a pro-Palestinian protest.
The speeches have all been reviewed by faculty members and administrators. DoRRS organizers have asserted that none of the speeches are hateful in any way.
During the BSC meeting, a speaker from Newton, unaffiliated with the Public Schools of Brookline, used the student speaker’s full name despite moderators’ repeated requests to keep the student’s identity anonymous. In his email, Meyer wrote that because of this, “safety concerns for DoRRS were heightened.”
Multiple speakers during the meeting also called for protests at the high school during DoRRS and called upon students to walk out during the speech.
Last year’s DoRRS caused division among students, staff and community members when a student speaker went off-script and alluded to the war in Gaza in his speech. Certain sections of his speech upset and divided community members, many of whom disagreed over whether the speech was antisemitic and whether it was relevant to DoRRS.
This year, DoRRS organizers have attempted to mitigate division by adopting a pre-recorded, lesson-based format, aimed at facilitating educated discussion and reflection after each Telling Our Stories speech. However, this decision has also sparked widespread debate.
Meyer ended the email by expressing his hope for the future of DoRRS.
“Listening to students’ lived experiences is powerful and essential,” he wrote. “We believe we can structure a Day of Racial Reform and Solidarity that spurs growth, learning and a more connected and compassionate community.”
