Editor’s note: This story was updated on Dec. 11 with new reporting about a protest at the Lee Academy Pilot School.
Megaphones blasted out chants that echoed across a chilly Codman Hill on Monday night as some 40 ralliers aired their objections to a Boston Public School proposal that would eliminate both the high school grades and a transition program for older students at Dorchester’s Henderson Upper School.
A similar protest played out on nearby Dunbar Avenue and Washington Street the following evening, Tuesday, to protest the closure of the Lee Academy Pilot School.
The plan, part of a larger downsizing of BPS facilities by the Wu administration that also impacts three other Dorchester schools, is set for a vote at the School Committee next Wednesday (Dec. 17). Other Dorchester-related schools scheduled for closure include the Community Academy of Science and Health (CASH) high school in Fields Corner and Another Course to College high school in Hyde Park near Mattapan.
The protester group, which included students, parents, and teachers, gathered on Croftland Avenue before a presentation from district officials that was set for Monday evening in the school auditorium. Some chanted slogans, among them – “Inclusion done right, not inclusion done cheap,” and “The city has the money. Save our schools.”
One speaker was Dr. William Henderson, the retired founder of the school and an early adherent to full-inclusion programs, who urged BPS officials to re-consider the move.
“You all have done a great job over the last several years on creating quality inclusion,” said Henderson, who is blind. “I want to say Boston has a legal and moral responsibility to offer high-quality inclusive opportunities to kids with multiple and intellectual disabilities, period. Repeat these words after me: Just pay for it.”
One of the first full inclusion schools in the United States, the Henderson was once a model for bringing students with disabilities alongside general education students for co-learning, something that by all accounts thrived under Dr. Henderson and his successor, Patricia Lampron, who was permanently injured after being attacked by a student at the school in 2021.
Opinion— What we’ll lose by eliminating Henderson’s upper grades, by Chelsey Falco
Since then, parents and long-time staffers contend, the school has been “sabotaged” with inadequate funding as part of a quiet move away from the full inclusion program that has fallen out of vogue with BPS’s central office.
“We once had national representatives visit our classrooms to witness a model where students with significant disabilities learn alongside their non-disabled peers and achieve at high levels,” said 25-year Henderson teacher Phyllis Leslie, who then asked:
“How did we get here if we were so successful and thriving for many years with two principals, Dr. Henderson and Patricia Lampron… Where is the data that show when we had this decline after thriving? We need transparency now.”
Prior to the rally, students, staff, and parents had gathered in the school library to stay warm before going outside for the protest and march. Standing to the side with two teachers was Dorchester’s Romero Huynh, 19, who is blind and in his second year of the transition program after having attended the Henderson most of his life.
On the agenda to speak outside, he was overcome with nerves and started to cry. But after being encouraged by his teachers and aides, he stepped up to the microphone and through comments written in Braille, he called for the school to remain open for kids like him.
“If not for Henderson and my community here there are some things I may share with you,” he said, as many in the audience shed tears. “I would never have learned to read and write and Braille. Travel MBTA, cook and clean, ski, swim, pottery, grocery shop, play sports, ride a bike and garden, recycle, sales and customer service…I feel really, really, really upset. Why are you closing down a school? Make it make sense, please.”
Sharon Boston, whose son is in his final years in the transition program after having attended the Henderson since he was three, spoke out as well.
“He loves the school,” Boston said. “I can’t understand why they are trying to shut this place down because there’s no other place like it here. Please help all of us understand it. These students need this school. They are included in everything that happens here whereas they wouldn’t be in any other place.”
The rallygoers then marched around the perimeter of the school before going in for the district’s meeting.
The Reporter was inside the meeting where about 60 people had gathered, but before the presentation began, BPS officials declared the event closed to the press and ordered The Reporter to leave the premises.
On Tuesday evening, another rally unfolded at the Lee Academy Pilot School, where parents, staff and alums of the PK-3 school gathered to protest its proposed closure as well. The demands from the Lee Academy community – also a full-inclusion school – were somewhat different as they seek a merger with another school or to stay open.
A group of about 30 or 40 gathered, marching to Washington Street and back, chanting, “Who are we? The Lee Academy! Save Our School,” and “We want a merger – The Lee Academy” while playing drums and shaking tambourines.
Denise Devaney, a long-time kindergarten teacher there, said they opened the school in 2012 to serve the area’s special needs students, and worked hard to build up a popular school option for students.
“Just this short time later to build such a community of love and support and inclusion, we are like family – it’s so sad and disappointing they would even consider this being an option,” she said. “I hope they vote no. We want a merger, and we want to stay together. If we have to leave this building, we want a place to go together.”
That was echoed by another long-time teacher, Shandolyn Anderson, who said she gathers her strength in her personal and professional lives from the students and faculty in the Lee Academy.
Lee Academy crossing guard Dorothy Humphrey was one of the loudest voices at the protest on Tuesday evening, noting this was her community and she didn’t want to see it dismantled. Seth Daniel photo
“It is because of the love I get in this tiny little building that I keep coming back, most times with a smile on my face and a song in my heart,” she said over a megaphone. “I pray and hope and wish and dream that whatever happens to this building we can physically move somewhere together because my heart would be broken if we had to separate.”
A key argument from the Lee proponents is that small school settings are the right recipe for some students, while larger schools can cause students with different needs to fall through the cracks. Parent Jasen Lambright noted his three kids are thriving because of that aspect, with one at Boston Latin School and another active at Boston Ballet School due to Lee Academy programs.
“I feel like my son (in second grade), this kid would be someone that in a bigger school I would think is just fine but would find out years later that he can’t read or there’s a speech delay,” he said. “You’re not just fighting for the school to stay open, but you’re fighting for kids like mine who in another environment would be just another number and no one would know what’s going on with them. Because of (Lee Academy), they have turned into something bigger than themselves.”
A district-led meeting took place also after the rally, but The Reporter did not attend as it was indicated press were also not allowed at that meeting.
