Chilmark select board member Warren Doty said Tuesday evening that a report on a strap incident at the Chilmark Community Center camp is due “within a few days.”
As The Times previously reported, two white boys at a camp run by the Chilmark town affairs council placed a tent strap around the neck of an African American kid. All of the boys were between the ages of 8 and 9.
The incident has drawn the attention of the local chapter of the NAACP, picketers, and national media outlets.
“I know the Chilmark town affairs council is taking this incident, which happened at their summer camp, very seriously,” select board member Warren Doty said. “They’ve been working hard at interviewing everybody involved.”
Select board chair Jim Malkin referred to the incident as something “that we’re all aware of.”
Malkin stressed the kids program at the Chilmark Community Center is not town-run, town-funded, or town-staffed. Nevertheless, Malkin said anything in Chilmark “that speaks to racism, in my opinion, or unfair treatment of people, is a concern to the town.”
He added, “I don’t know and the select board doesn’t know and the town doesn’t know what actually happened … It’s conceivable it was an issue of bullying; it’s conceivable it was an issue [of] stupid play; or it’s conceivable it was an issue that had racial overtones — but certainly it’s an upsetting issue.”
Malkin said the incident is a reminder for folks to be diversity-conscious.
Malkin took the opportunity to say he was “delighted” Chilmark Police joined the Vineyard’s police departments for diversity training earlier in the year.
“Until we get details, it’s very hard for us, in fact impossible for us, to know what, if anything, the town’s response should be — other than the town does not condone, within the town, racism, bullying, harassment, or behaviors of the like.”
Select board member Bill Rossi described Malkin’s position on the incident as “pretty thorough,” and said he had nothing to add.
Rescue applauded
“On August 1, 2021, at 11:20 am, a visitor to Lucy Vincent entered the water at the Cliff’s Station A and did not resurface. Bystanders pulled the woman out from the surf and called the lifeguards for assistance,” Malkin said. “Chilmark beach staff, firefighters, and police officers all responded. They provided life-saving CPR and transported the patient to an ambulance that was waiting.”
EMTs stabilized the patient and transported her to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Malkin said. The patient was subsequently taken to Boston and is “recovering,” Malkin said.
On behalf of the select board and the town, Malkin thanked beach staff, police officers, firefighters, and Tri-Town Ambulance personnel, in assisting with a “near-drowning event.”
“If it wasn’t for your activity, that person wouldn’t have made it,” Doty said of the individuals involved in the rescue.
Curious as to why “two white boys” and an “African American kid” described in this manner?