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Date: 4/19/2022
EASTHAMPTON – Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle has apologized after making a racially insensitive remark to members of the Easthampton High School (EHS) award-winning We The People team a couple of weeks ago.
On April 13, a day after the School Committee called for an investigation into the incident, LaChapelle issued a statement admitting that she made a mistake.
The apology comes after Shawn Sheehan, a science teacher at the high school, sent an email to the School Committee requesting that they investigate what occurred. Sheehan said that he was not present when the alleged incident happened, but he relayed the information regarding the issue to the committee after students came into his class upset about what LaChapelle had allegedly said.
Embedded within the email was a social media post, written by a parent who claimed their child was a target of the alleged racially insensitive remark. The parent, who is identified on the post as Jhamba Dolkar Sherpa, claimed that LaChapelle made a racist remark to her 17-year-old daughter in front of the class.
“Mayor Nicole told [the student], ‘you are different, you don’t talk like a white person,’” Dolkar Sherpa wrote on Facebook. According to the social media post and Sheehan’s email, LaChapelle also allegedly used the “f-bomb” in front of the class.
The parent said that LaChapelle was invited to participate in a feedback session in the We The People class, as the students were preparing for their upcoming national debate in Washington D.C. According to the parent, the EHS principal and We The People class teacher were both “extremely supportive” when the parent reached out about the incident.
“I know that racism will continue to exist in the society,” read Dolkar Sherpa’s post. “And we will continue to face or experience racism because of our ethnicity regardless. But we need to stand up and fight against racism and not let them ruin our life. This has to stop.”
School Committee Chair Cynthia Kwiecinski said during the April 12 School Committee meeting that the committee would pursue a further, more in-depth discussion when the investigation is done, and the mayor returns from her trip.
“I need to make two comments … one, is that we do not condone racist behavior or comments of any kind, and we will be conducting an investigation,” Kwiecinski said, during the School Committee meeting on April 12. “That being said, the mayor is away, and until the mayor comes back, we cannot finalize anything.”
LaChapelle, who has been out of the country since April 7 and was unable to provide comment to Reminder Publishing by press time, issued a statement of apology a day after School Committee called for this investigation into the incident.
“I visited with high school students last week to help celebrate their participation in an upcoming competition,” said LaChapelle. “During my visit, I made comments that I had intended to motivate students of color. However, the statements had the opposite effect and offended a student instead.”
Upon learning that she had offended the student, LaChapelle immediately agreed to meet with the student and the student’s family, who explained to her why the comment offended them. LaChapelle said she listened, realized her mistake, and wrote a letter of apology to the student and the student’s family.
“I cannot stress enough that I want to be an ally for students of color. I did not mean to offend the student, but I did,” said LaChapelle. “I take ownership of that mistake and, as an ally, pledge to do better. Most importantly, I want to commend the student for being brave enough to raise this issue with me in such a thoughtful and mature way.”