Disturbing news about racism from coaches at FYFC
If you have FB, you can see the screen shots of texts that went between Jason Smith and coaches. And it's been going on for years. When I last ran against Jason, someone anonymously sent me a warning about Jason and his blatant racism. At the time, I had no way of verifying any of the information. I made the mistake of asking a well know democratic leader and he wrote.. forget about it. I'm sorry I backed down. But now, the undeniable evidence would indicate that these guys who were fired treated 6th graders very poorly. Jason has stepped aside, but he needs to resign and ALL his board should do the same. Another question I have is what did our new At Large councilwomen knew about this since she has been working with Jason for years.
From the biased Source:
The president of Framingham Youth Football & Cheer leading has
stepped down voluntarily and temporarily while the board investigates.
“The Board of Directors of Framingham Youth Football & Cheer
(FYFC) and outside counsel Richard Quinby are investigating this matter
and the timeline thoroughly. So as to remove the appearance of any undue
influence on the Board or our investigation, Jason Smith has
voluntarily and temporarily stepped aside as President. We urge any
parents, coaches or others with relevant information on this matter to
contact the Board or counsel as soon as possible,” said the FYFC BOARD
tonight, November 7.
On Tuesday night, the FYFC voted to terminate 3 coaches, including the head coach for the 6th grade team, for sexist and racist group chat posts.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 10:26 AM
21 Comments
21 Comments:
Racism is alive and well here in Framingham and if you ever doubted that this is a perfect example of it. Yet many say we have no need to address this racism issue, no need for a diversity officer, and the one woman of color running for at large got beat by a woman who has posted in the past pictures of herself with Trump and who got an awful lot of out of state money for her campaign. Why are so many in this city blind to this issue?
After seeing all this, I would not allow Jason Smith to be involved in any way with my kids. In many ways I see him as more evil than those who wrote the texts. He saw them, and he know the people writing them were influencing kids on Framingham. If he is not a bigot why would he put kids at risk with learning this offensive, evil and horrific behavior? Or, did he not see this as an issue because he feels the same way the people texting do? Just asking the obvious question here folks.
I think we should all send texts about how fat people have no self control. I wonder if Smith would ignore those like he ignored these.
Hooray for our new city councilor Morales for his stand on this. Where are the others councilors? Why has there been no response from sitting elected officials here? Ignoring this is not at all what I would expect those representing us to do, but yet, that is exactly what they are doing, and what they have a long history of doing.
We have had a Muslim child face bullying, no matter what the source of that was. We have had racist pictures/remarks posted in the first city council election by a woman who was elected in spite of those posts. We have had racist graffiti at the University. And now we have this. And all of this is just what we know about. We need to address these issues city wide, and that needs to start at the top, with the mayor. It appears from what I have seen the Mr. Smith saw at least some of these posts more than a year ago and did nothing. Choosing to do nothing is wrong and speaks a volume about his character. He needs to remove himself from anything related to the young people of this community. If he did not see those posts as racist, then he has no business being the face of authority to any child in this city.
I always thought of Jason as a good guy involved with local kids. I no longer see him that way in light of these texts. He needs to step down permanently and never again be involved with kids.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Attributed to Edmund Burke, included in a speech by President John F Kennedy in 1961. Whatever Jason Smith’s views were on these bigoted texts, he chose to do nothing to address it, knowing full well the people who wrote those texts were involved with children in our community. Shame on Mr. Smith for either his lack of concern, or his lack of backbone to address the issues. But mostly shame on him for allowing these bigoted coaches to continue to be involved with children in this community. He has to go.
I agree with the previous poster. It appears that Jason Smith did not see these texts as a reason to take action until they came into public view. He knew for a year there was an issue. Irresponsible behavior like this cannot be ignored. He needs to never be involved with kids in this community again since we can’t count on him to do the right thing.
Once again Framingham is looking bad in the press, and once again no official from Framingham is addressing that. People say Framingham has a reputation for not being business friendly. I say we have a reputation for not being people friendly unless you are white, a democratic, and willing to follow the party line.
People whether you like Jason or not is not the question. He allowed people who are seen as authority figures to our kids to stay in those position when he had reason to believe that their beliefs were contrary to what I am betting are the beliefs the parents of these kids want them to learn. Bad, bad judgement. If I can’t trust him to make sure my kids are learning the right things, then I don’t want him involved with my kids, and I no longer trust his judgement.
The coaches are fired. Good. We are now all aware of an issue that impacts our kids. Good. The people in power in the football league kept this information from me, as a parent of one of those kids, for a year. Bad. My child will not play football in that league until all those involved, including Mr. Smith, are no longer involved. Period.
Jason should resign but the bigger questions is what do we do to prevent this type of thing from happening again here in Framingham, and where is the city on this? Why are they silent?
I have to say I am surprised at the comments about the city being quiet. When Eurie Stamps was shot and killed by a police officer it was a very long time before our electeds made any comment at all. I guess some things never change, whether we are a city or a town, have a mayor or selectmen. And Jason Smith was a selectman at that time, so part of the silent group, which means this is not his first time being quiet about racial issues here in Framignham Why is any surprised he did not bring this up a year ago?
I feel bad for the parents who stop by and post.. Thank you for sharing your gut felling on the issue. I presume most would say and do the same thing.
It's almost embarrassing that the Mayor hasn't weighed in.. we were promised a City leader to represent us in the Charter.
I can't figure out how we can cure this infection... but I would hope, each and every parent who has in a kid in any sport... ask some questions about what adults in charge are saying.
Jason and his coaches are not alone in this I'll bet an d perhaps those who have witnessed this latest outrage... will learn from this and stop their own brand of racism.
Well said Jim, especially about the mayor. But what about the other electeds? I have not heard even one councilor weigh in on this. Shameful
Jason Smith for Mayor in 2021!
Not Happening!!!
That's to funny poster. He would be the last person on earth I could ever vote for for.
Don’t count out Jason yet.
Who would have thought that Framingham would have been stupid enough to elect “light fingers” Stefanini to the council. But it did.
Ha. Stefanini is the Poster child of Framingham politics.
That may have come to an end... with the last election. He and a few others only won by a narrow margin. And it's certainly no mandate... for which to launch a campaign for Mayor imo.
I don't think voters would forget about Jason's latest lapse in judgement.
Jimbo, the power base of that bunch has weakened, but they are not gone. Can't you already imagine what will happen over the next 2 years. Stef will take every opportunity to crap on Spicer to make her look bad. Janet will do whatever Stef says since she is incapable of independent thought. And the walking Napoleon complex has 2 more years to continue to bitch and take credit for other people's work. And you can add in Ottavianni who probably can't figure out who he is more pissed at, the Stef crew who screwed him in the first election, or Spicer for the Zoning Board. Two more years of watching the circus, get a good seat.
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