At the school committee meeting on May 17, the meeting opened with a prepared statement by school committee member Carly Reich. While I had hoped that the statement would be an apology, it included nothing of the sort. Rather than focusing on her behavior during the previous meeting, Reich instead chose to express her frustration with a budgetary situation she had a direct hand in creating.

During a recent school committee budgetary meeting, committee member Victor Cabral was explaining a procedural matter about the meeting and was abruptly met with an inappropriate response by Ms. Reich, who characterized Mr. Cabral’s comments as “mansplaining.” Not only were Mr. Cabral’s comments not condescending in tone, but the use of such sexist and divisive terms is inappropriate and unacceptable for a school committee member, during a meeting. If the roles were reversed, I can only imagine the backlash that would have been received.

As a father of boys in our district, I wonder if Ms. Reich is interested in representing the men in our district, or the boys in our schools. How can somebody who holds such clear contempt for men be expected to do so?

Ms. Reich has been a vocal advocate for diversity and equity in our district. If she expects the students and voting public to believe that, she owes Mr. Cabral, her school committee peers, and her constituents (all of them), a sincere apology.

Daryl Gould
Warren