‘We have not had support’
Malcolm Flynn, the outgoing head disciplinarian at Boston Latin School, spoke with reporters about allegations the school has a racially toxic atmosphere and his decision to step down. Here are excerpts from his comments:
“I didn’t want to. I had to. That’s all I can say right now. Because the truth was not getting out and I wanted the truth out.
We have not had support from (Superintendent Tommy Chang) or from the mayor of Boston. That’s why I have to leave. Having said those things, I cannot work for those people. I’m sorry.
Racial toxicity is not Boston Latin School. Students at Boston Latin School work together every day. They sit together in the lunchroom every day, mixed tables. It is not like any other school that you will see.
When class is dismissed, they walk in the corridors happily talking to each other, they go into another class, they get there on time.
Yes, somebody’s going to say something. Yes, there’s going to be an argument. Yes, but they get resolved, they get fixed, kids apologize to each other, they apologize to teachers.
There is no toxic atmosphere here, there’s no fear here, I’m reading sometimes in the paper the kids are in fear at this school, they’re in fear of each other. That isn’t true. This is the safest place for these kids. Honest to God, they love it here.
They’re going to say they hate it. Why? Well, we make them work a lot. They do a lot of work. Yeah, there’s a lot of homework. Yeah, right. ‘And I hate that school and I can’t wait to get out,’ any kid would tell you that, and especially the seniors. They’re all back the next day.
What (the U.S. Attorney’s Office is) doing is asking us questions to find out how does it work there. Because they’ve been told that the kids are in mortal fear here. ...I’m not worried about what they (the feds) might find. They might find, you know, something happened here or something happened there that could have been handled differently, Yeah, I agree. I’ve been here long enough to know that I’ve handled some things one way and I might have handled them another way.”