The Martha’s Vineyard chapter of the NAACP has concluded that a recent incident involving three children at the Chilmark Community Center summer camp was racially insensitive, but not necessarily racially motivated.
“While we were not able to find that the children involved met the intent requirement for a racially motivated incident, we did find that the incident was racially insensitive due to the action or inaction of the Chilmark town affairs Council,” chapter president Arthur Hardy-Doubleday said in an email to the Gazette Monday.
The incident occurred in late July when two young campers who are white placed a strap around the neck of another young camper who is black.
The town affairs council later conducted an investigation and issued a report.
The NAACP also conducted its own investigation.
In the email, Mr. Hardy-Doubleday said the chapter’s legal redress committee presented its findings to the executive committee and the regular membership at a meeting last Saturday. A recording of the meeting provided by Mr. Hardy-Doubleday is available for listening.
“A major takeaway from the NAACP’s investigation is that the commonwealth has anti bullying and harassment laws that are applicable to schools, and if they were applicable to summer camps we theorized this incident would not have been allowed to take place due to the summer camp having training on how to effectively prevent bullying and harassment,” Mr. Hardy-Doubleday wrote in part.
He said the NAACP now seeks to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the town affairs council aimed at preventing future incidents of harassment and bullying.
“Per a vote of our branch we would also like to present our findings in a public meeting to the select board of Chilmark,” he wrote.
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