At the Bristol Warren Region School Committee meeting held on May 27, I had planned on speaking during public comment to share my opinions on school committee member Carly Reich’s sexist and divisive comment directed towards fellow school committee member Victor Cabral.

Shortly after beginning my statement, I was cut off by the attorney for the district and Chairperson Marjorie McBride. The reason provided was that they would not allow comments that were critical of school committee members, a clear violation of the Open Meetings Act.

While there are policies/laws that prohibit discussing specific students and employees by name, no such provision exists for ELECTED school committee members. Our school committee has a long track record of failing to understand the rules that govern their body. While some of these lapses may be benign, silencing the speech of any individual in our community regarding their opinions is a gross infringement of the spirit and law surrounding free speech, and the First Amendment, and should not be tolerated.

Daryl Gould
Warren