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Brookings Human Rights Commission Minutes
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Brookings City/County Government Center and Zoom Meeting App
Attendance: Nieema Thasing (chair -online); Dianne Nagy (vice-chair – in person); Lawrence Novotny,
(recorder and CLEAR Partners liaison– in person); Amanda Fickes (in person); Erica Moore (online);
Emma Qurashi (student representative & behavioral health liaison – online); Charlene ‘Charlie’ Ward
(county representative & Disabilities Awareness Committee liaison– in person); Mikaela Neubauer
(library liaison – in person); Casey Bell (city human resources & staff liaison – in person);
Absent: Dan Berg; Carla Gatzke; Mark Johnson; Marci Gebers (sheriff’s office liaison); Caleb Johnson
(police liaison); Marjoanne Thompson (SDSU liaison); Michele Vande Weerd (school liaison)
Guest: Behnoosh Amandi, Brookings Multi-Cultural Center
Chair Thasing called the meeting to order at 5:32 pm.
Ward moved, Nagy seconded, to approve the agenda with the addition of: social media account access
and SDWAC report. Motion passed.
Nagy moved, Fickes seconded, to approve the minutes of the November 17 meeting with name
corrections for Marjoanne Thompson and D’Shaun Herman and correction of “Fizz with Fuss” about
alcohol usage to “Fizz with Fuzz” which is officers meetings with resident hall students over soda.
Motion passed.
Liaison Reports:
Library Neubauer listed the events lined up for Black History Month in February. She is looking for
volunteers for the African American read-in event on February 23 whereby volunteers will do short
readings of Black authors. She needs a representative from BHRC to speak at the February 28 event.
Neubauer is drafting a proposal for a 2-year grant for a disabilities awareness and outreach project. She
will need a letter of support from BHRC.
Sustainability Council: Novotny reported that at its last meeting the Sustainability Council voted to
eliminate its liaison with BHRC. The current Council’s focus is on environmental and economic issues
of sustainability and not on the social justice issues. Novotny attends the Sustainability Council
meetings as part of his environmental interests and will serve as an informal liaison.
CLEAR Partners: (Novotny). CLEAR meet with school board member Deb Debates to discuss the
school’s bullying policy. Notes from the meeting: Appeal of bullying incidents are first made to the
building principal, then the superintendent, and finally to the school board. Appeals to the school
board must be submitted in writing before the board will consider the appeal. Having to do a written
submission may discourage some parents from appealing. Lawrence suggested providing assistance to
parents on filling out the appeal form. This is something the human rights commission will be providing
to individuals filing a discrimination complaint.
Deb reported that kids are more likely to share bullying incidences with school counselors than with
administrators or parents. Chad (middle school counselor) has created Peer Helpers which are
students who other students trust. Students can go to the Peer Helpers with their concerns. The
Helpers also monitor for bullying and will alert counselors. The Peer Helpers are selected by their
fellow students. The helpers are not necessary the popular students but those who are trusted. The peer
helpers also receive training.
Also discussed were the problems associated with use of cell phones and social media. At one time, the
school provided a forum for parents on how to deal with the social media apps that kids are exposed to.
This forum needs to be repeated at various times and also made available by Zoom recording. The
Brookings Human Rights Commission also needs to resume its bystander training program.
Moore responded that the school pretends racism and bullying does not exist. A friend of her child
recently committed suicide. Peer mentoring is not effective when the administration does nothing.
Sometimes peer mentors can make the situation worse. Also school staff are being affected. There
needs to be actual consequences for bullying. Two parents have pulled their kids from school and left
the state.
The BHRC should be doing something about this probably in cooperation with CLEAR. Discussion on
this would continue in the future.
Community Economic Master Plan: Nagy reported that the implementation plan for Goal 4 (invest in
diverse talent) identifies the HRC and the City as leads for the strategy of promoting a city-wide DEI
and welcoming initiative. Lines of action for this strategy are:
• Assemble an advisory committee (Y1-Y5)
• Catalog DEI best practices of peer cities (Y2)
• Use the City’s market/communication platforms to welcome residents, promote initiatives, and
feature companies (Y1-Y5)
• Celebrate cultural diversity (Y1-Y5)
• Devise a citywide DEI action plan (Y3)
Working Groups
Social Media: Fickes and Amandi are new members. A city staffer stated that only BHRC members
can have access to the city’s BHRC social media accounts. This needs to be checked into.
Legislative: Novotny moved, Ward seconded, that the legislative working group be authorized to speak
on behalf of the entire BHRC when it comes to submitting testimony on bills during the 2023
Legislative Session. Motion passed. The WG consists of Novotny, Thasing, and Nagy.
Common Read (Ward): Ward and Gatzke meet to discuss Common Read. Gatzke will be taking
Ward’s place on the SDSU Common Read committee.
LGBTQ Neubauer reported that the library will be hosting a January program on LGBTQ rights
presented by ACLU. Amandi mentioned a film on transgender issues that is part of her masters
program.
International Outreach: Novotny and Nagy represented the BHRC at the SD World Affairs Council
World Outreach program discussion on December 8. The discussion was with a delegation from
Mongolia consisting of young professionals who headup non-profit organizations. The delegation had a
lot of questions regarding our BHRC. Some issues the Mongolians are dealing with are alcoholism,
domestic abuse, and youth mentoring.
Training (Bell): The WG will conduct a run-thru exercise with Moore this Friday.
Africans in the Diaspora Cultural Awareness Thasing reported that someone will be making a
donation to purchase Juneteenth calendars.
Nagy talked about showing the film Race Amity: The Other Tradition which deals with working across
race barriers. This would be part of Black History month. Moore moved, Nagy seconded, to spend
$87 of BHRC funds to purchase the Race Amity DVD and license and that the BHRC would be
reimbursed by a donor. Motion passed.
Indigenous Peoples (Moore): The Indigenous Peoples Festival was held at the Mikkelson Middle
School on November 19 from 11 am – 4 pm. It featured drummers, singers, and dancers from Flandreau
Indian School and Sisseton. A Lakota PhD chemist gave science presentations which were very
popular. Around a 100 people attended throughout the day. The vendors and student organizations
made money.
Budget
$115 will be used to reimburse Moore for her expenditures on the Indigenous Peoples program. We had
budgeted $500 for BHRC merchandise. Bell will order what is needed to replenish our stock. Any
leftover funds will be used to reimburse Moore for her expenditures on the Indigenous Peoples program.
We still have not received an invoice from SDSU for our share of the Griffith Lecture fee. Nagy moved,
Moore seconded, that we ask city finance to carry over the $2500 to next year’s budget. Motion passed.
Old Business
Common Read: The working group (Gatzke, Nagy, Neubauer) will meet and report back about our
involvement in the program.
Meeting time: Nagy announced that the Doodle poll showed that the 1st, 2nd or 4th Thursdays or any
Fridays worked for members. Nagy moved, Moore seconded, that our regular meeting time for 2023 be
the 2nd Thursday of the month with the meeting starting at 5:30 pm and ending by 7 pm. Motion passed
with Ward abstaining.
MLK contest: Due to school closings caused by the weather, the contest deadline has been extended to
January 5. All BHRC members are being asked to judge. Information will be sent via e-mail.
Educating ourselves: Thasing started talking about a book Nice Racism when her internet connection
ceased to work. Vice-chair Nagy took over running the meeting. The book discussion was tabled to a
future meeting.
New business
Nagy proposed to re-arrange future agendas so that the business portion is done prior to liaison and
working group reports. The external liaisons can report at the beginning of the meeting so that will not
have to be present for the entire meeting.
The draft of our 2022 annual report will be e-mailed out for everyone to review and comment on.
Ward was thanked for her 3 years of service on the BHRC. Ward stated that serving on the BHRC
encouraged her to go back to graduate school. She may continue to serve on a working group.
Adjourn:
Meeting adjourned at 7:08 pm.
Submitted by Lawrence Novotny, recorder