Produced in partnership with Holyoke Media.

On March 5th, 2020, Dr. Stephen Mahoney, Executive Principal at Holyoke High School, met with students, teachers, parents, school committee members, and community members, to listen to their feedback on the implementation of this policy.

This meeting continued showing the different angles of how the random searches policy seems to be creating more problems than solutions, and it brought some moments of tension, and statements worth of scrutiny regarding data, research, and consistency in the reasons for the implementation of a random search policy.

This second public meeting was held at the Tea Room in the Holyoke High School Dean Campus, and had the participation of students of both campuses of Holyoke High, teachers, school committee members from wards 1, 2, and 3, students from Smith College and UMass, the Pa’Lante Restorative Justice Program, and Ethnic Studies, among partners and members of the community.

Dr. Mahoney opened the session with a timeline of the events that led to the implementation of this policy, followed by questions from the attending public, that started with a focus on medication.

Dr. Mahoney announced he will be conducting lunch meetings with students, in order to continue gathering input on this matter, however he didn’t provide a specific date for when those meeting would happen.

This audio recording captures the dialog between Holyoke High principal, and the attending audience, from the moments of the medication discussion, until the conclusion of the meeting.