This article has been updated to include comment from Freetown-Lakeville School Committee Chair John Burke. 

LAKEVILLE — A Freetown-Lakeville School Committee member has called for the resignation of four other committee members for allegedly violating Massachusetts Open Meeting Law and making “sexist” comments with “underlying tones of racism.” 

The school committee did not respond to a request for comment before the print deadline for the Thursday, Aug. 29 edition of Nemasket Week. However, in an email sent Thursday, Freetown Lakeville School Committee Chair John Buke said that “until the School Committee has an opportunity to discuss the Open Meeting Law Complaint, I am not in a position to provide a substantive response on behalf of the School Committee.”

Burke noted however that “as an individual, I have not witnessed ‘racist,’ or ‘sexist,’ behavior, including the behavior Ms. Ng alleges from any committee member, past or present.”

According to an Open Meeting Law violation filed by Freetown-Lakeville School Committee Member Crystal Ng on Aug. 20, the committee’s July 31 executive session was called under “false pretenses.”  

In her complaint, Ng said that the Freetown-Lakeville School Committee entered into executive session to discuss “negotiation strategies for non-union personnel”, but that discussion actually “revolved around the superintendent’s public survey results.”

The committee’s July 31 agenda, which is publicly available online, states that the committee entered into executive session to discuss matters related to non-union personnel negotiations. 

A survey to collect feedback from Freetown and Lakeville residents on Superintendent Alan Strauss’ performance was sent out in early July. Responses have been reviewed by the school committee as part of the superintendent’s two-year evaluation process. 

Discussing matters other than what is listed on the agenda under executive session has been a pattern, Ng said. 

Massachusetts Open Meeting Law mandates that all meetings held by a public body be open to the public unless they meet specified criteria that warrants entering into executive session, in which members discuss matters in private. 

Ng’s complaint also stated that no meeting minutes have been written for the school committee’s executive sessions and that “the committee has been accepting meeting minutes without them.” 

Additionally, Ng accused Freetown-Lakeville School Committee members Jenn Blum, Robert Clark, Will Sienkewicz and Stephen Sylvia of exhibiting “unproductive” and “unprofessional” behavior stating that she and fellow School Committee member Carolina Hernandez have been “victims of harassment, including sexist comments” and “underlying tones of racism.” 

As a result of the violation and behavior exhibited by these four members, Ng stated that these members should “resign from their positions on the Freetown-Lakeville School Committee” and submit a public apology for their “behavior unbecoming for a public official.” 

When a complaint is filed against a public body, the body has 14 days to submit a response, along with a copy of the complaint, to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office. The Attorney General’s Office has not yet received a response from the school committee, according to staff.