“I tried to pry public records from Brookline schools. They stiff-armed me for months.” (Boston Globe, 9/21/2025):
The rub: Because of flaws in our state’s law, theory differs from practice. It takes just minutes to file a public records request, but as I painfully learned, to actually get a request fulfilled may require months upon months of follow-up; a nontrivial sum of money; a lawyer or two; and persistence verging on a pathological inability to let go.
Just after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, the schools superintendent sent out two messages that sparked instant backlash. “As you are likely already aware, violence is escalating rapidly in Israel and Palestine,” began one note, sent to the entire school district community. Though the town includes large Jewish and Israeli populations, the note neither decried the Hamas atrocities nor expressed sympathy to the many affected local families. A separate note to staff recommended an undeniably slanted set of teaching resources. It included links to pro-Palestinian sources like Visualizing Palestine and Decolonize Palestine but no similarly pro-Israel sources to balance them, and nothing on Hamas.
(I’m not sure that it is reasonable to call the October 7, 2023 event “Hamas attacks” given that there were fighters from UNRWA and Palestinian Islamic Jihad involved, as well as “civilian” Gazans. By saying that it is only “Hamas” that wants to destroy the Zionist entity and achieve river-to-the-sea liberation the implication is that if the 6 or 7 remaining Hamas-affiliated Gazans were removed the Gazans would cheerfully accept the existence of Israel.)
On Oct. 16, 2023, when I filed my request, I figured I was just asking for a couple of days’ worth of one official’s emails on a specific topic. Type a few terms into a search bar and done, right?
Wrong. It took more than 18 months to get that modest request fulfilled, and I still don’t have one central document (but I’ve given up). It took enlisting pro bono lawyers; appeals to the supervisor of records, the state team that handles public records requests; countless nagging emails; two speeches and a half-dozen emails to the School Committee. … I refiled the request in May 2024. This time, when it was once again met with silence, I knew enough to appeal after 10 days to the supervisor of records. That office promptly ordered the town to respond.In July 2024, the Brookline town counsel did send over a document. Only one, but still — a document!
Sadly, it was nothing but an email saying a draft of a Google Doc for the Oct. 7 messaging had been created. All names were blacked out, without the justifications for those redactions that are required by law. Also, I knew the superintendent had received many emails responding to his messages; our local Brookline News had even covered them. Where were they?Stymied, I finally sought legal help through the Anti-Defamation League’s project on antisemitism in K-12 schools, and it provided two top-notch pro bono attorneys. In mid-December, I wrote to the town counsel conveying, for the first time in my life, the ultimate attention-grabber: “You’ll be hearing next from my lawyers.”
Soon came the count — the town counsel’s office had identified 368 potentially relevant emails — and the price tag: they estimated that at least 39 hours of staff time would be needed to process the emails, at a cost of $926.25.
In April and May of this year, the town counsel sent over four batches of repetitive, sometimes irrelevant emails, sprinkled with a few gems. Several indicated that two senior district staffers had led the drafting of the messages: a senior director of teaching and learning, and the director of the Office of Educational Equity.
Any Massachusetts taxpayer who wants to fund “education” instead of “educational equity” can move to Florida, I guess.
Here’s a page from the Decolonize Palestine site that the school bureaucrats wanted students to read:
In other words, we always must circle back to Queers for Palestine.
Should get the one missing email. Must be the mother of all emails with surprising addresses.
Phil, a little secret I wanted to share with you (please keep it on the down low?). We on the Left care about one thing: maintaining power. Thus, can you imagine the Noble Brookline Leftists providing one iota of help to Carey Goldberg? First, she is a Jew. Second, she openly supports the Genocide by the Israeli Colonizers in Gaza. She is therefore an enemy of Dr. Linus J. Guillory Jr., the compassionate Superintendent who cares deeply about his students, and others in Brookline’s Leftist government. Fortunately, Dr. Linus is cut from the same cloth as Dr. Ian Andre Roberts in Des Moines. Comprende?
Phil, I need to fess up to some misinformation in my earlier post (the news cycle got ahead of me).
First, Dr. Ian Andre Roberts has decided to leave the country, so will no longer be able to spread his gospel of Equity to youngsters in Des Moines. Please see his ostensible mug shot below–what a dashing young man, no? And I know a thing or two about mug shots! Also, Dr. Andre was a registered voter in Maryland, so perhaps they can intercede and at least allow him to vote in the upcoming elections there before he departs.
Second, Dr. Linus has also decided to depart from Brookline, some four years before his contract was set to end. Brookline will surely miss his compassionate teachings on anti-semitism, white supremacy and other topical matters. Sadly, I wasn’t able to find a mug shot for him.
Both of these wonderful scholars were mentored by the inimitable Claudine Gay at Harvard.
https://x.com/GrageDustin/status/1972659362570080558
https://thecypressonline.com/57469/news/superintendent-guillory-to-resign-adding-to-continued-turnover-within-district/
https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/09/21/greta-thunberg-removed-from-gaza-flotilla-leadership-amid-infighting/
>journalist Yosef Omar also announced on Instagram that he’s leaving the flotilla. According to the Italian article, his sensational style angered participants, and his coverage of the “drone attack” was one step too far.
>Thunberg, for her part, clarified in a statement to the anti-Israel site “Drop Site” that she continues the mission as a regular participant – “I strongly believe in this humanitarian mission’s goal and in the mobilization power we’re seeing around the world.” She explained that her role “won’t be in the executive committee but as an organizer and participant, because this way I can contribute better.”
$900 bux! C’mon Mass, you are playing small ball, have to try harder to play in our league. We may be the smallest but when it comes to smacking uppity taxpayers we hit A-Rod solid. Local troublemaking Mom Nicole got smacked with a FOIA bill for a hundred sixteen large. Top that, pikers!
https://x.com/Nicoletta0602/status/1970930660199235755
Doesn’t the 10/10-rated BPS have a zero-tolerance bullying policy, or are teachers exempt?
My history teacher in Barrington was the mirror image of Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Even though I was a sailor rather than a surfer, I was kind of like Spicoli. I got along with my teacher, unlike Jeffie. My nickname for the students there was “Wharf Rats”, like Mr. Kotter’s “Sweat Hogs”, except smellier and less studious.
This Vinny Barbarino looking boy/man used to come in to history class wearing a ridiculously-lapeled biker jacket, reeking of whiskey, cigarettes, and weed. He would emit these nasty sulfurous gaseous-emissions. Mr. D. just shook his head and wrote down how the Indians were fairly compensated for Rhode Island. I’d rather spend time in that class than with that “modern ” hate-filled, inarticulate, history teacher dude.
Hamas pogrom.
fixed it for you
Phil, a bit of news in Brookline that I’m sure will be of interest to you as someone who has stood strongly with our Brothers in Hamas and against the evil Jews in Brookline.
As the Leader at Harvard, I know I speak for everyone there in saying I am proud to announce that one of our Noble law professors has attempted to shoot some of the evil Jews in Brookline! Please pray for him and his family. Allahu Akbar.
https://x.com/StopAntisemites/status/1974567271273037981