LONGMEADOW – In light of the national climate leading up to and resultant of a tumultuous and contentious election season, School Committee member Michael Clark plans to bring forward a resolution reaffirming the committee’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness.

Clark told Reminder Publications he has also requested a report from Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea on the status of civics education and media literacy in Longmeadow schools. He said he hopes O’Shea would provide recommendations on how to improve instruction in those areas.

Discussing the resolution, he said a conversation with a concerned member of the school community sparked his interest in bringing the matter before the School Committee. He said he learned the level of concern among the student body that was extremely high.

“I thought about what I can do and what we can do within our community to say, ‘Yeah, there’s a lot of rhetoric and there’s a lot of harmful rhetoric and it’s affecting our students in ways we probably didn’t anticipate and probably never thought possible,’” he said. “We have students who are so upset and despondent not about the politics, but about the type of conversations that are being had.”

Clark, also the chief of staff for state Sen. Eric Lesser and a member of the Longmeadow Democratic Town Committee and the state committee, said he attempted to look at the issue as it related to the school communities from a “non-political standpoint.”

He expressed his belief that the School Committee had an obligation as leaders in our community to respond to the negative conversations and actions taking place throughout the country.

“It’s regardless of who’s saying them; it’s not a party thing,” he said. “It’s the fact that they’re being said and the fact that we’re dealing with hate crimes and anti-Semitic epithets being carved into Mount Tom. There’s this element that is permeating that I think is just so harmful and I thought it was important for the School Committee to really take a stand not against anybody in particular, but to reaffirm our values as a committee for the type of school community we want to have.”

Clark noted the school community more often than not has maintained an inclusive atmosphere and the resolution would be a reinforcement of current values. He noted Longmeadow was among of the first to implement recommendations about transgender accommodations. He also pointed to Wolf Swamp Elementary School’s annual World Food Fair as another celebration of Longmeadow’s diversity.

Addressing civics education, Clark said he believes one of the biggest lessons from the election was that a majority of the population does not have a firm understanding of the process.

“I think it’s important that our students are prepared for life outside of Longmeadow and that they are prepared to be full citizens,” he said. “Being active participants in their own democracy is really the greatest form of citizenship that we have.”

He added, “Asking them to engage in the process is the way we avoid having people feel they are being left out by the process.”

Clark said that feeling of exclusion is not just a national concern, but one he has seen in his own community. He noted that most of the members of the School Committee were elected with 4 percent of the vote and were unopposed.

“That’s not healthy for our democracy and as grateful as I am to be in the role that I’m in, it probably would have been better if I had a challenger. It probably would have been better if the majority of our committee had challengers if for no other reason than it would have elevated the dialogue,” he said.

While acknowledging Massachusetts schools are among the highest performing in the country, Clark said he felt there was a lack of a comprehensive civics curriculum.

“I want to know what we’re doing in Longmeadow around civics. I want to know what we could be doing a better job of; I want to know what we’re talking to students about,” he said. “I think it’s important that we understand what students are hearing. Are they learning about how a bill becomes a law? Probably. Are they learning about how they petition their government? Are they learning what recourse they have if they are subject of illegal search and seizure? Are they learning ways to amend the Constitution, which is a really big subject right now? Are they learning what the difference between their selectmen and their School Committee is?”

Tied in with an understanding of the process is an understanding of how to navigate a growing definition of media and the proliferation of information and misinformation on social media.

“One of the big topics following this election has been the number of fake news sites on Facebook. Things like Twitter and Facebook and Instagram are great for communicating,” Clark, who previously helped craft the district’s social media policies, said. “It is a great tool, but we need to be able to discern, in order to be productive citizens, what’s a real news source from a fake news source. They really can become this echo chamber where people are just throwing opinions back and forth without any fact. My goal is to get a better understanding on how we are informing our students to the best of our ability.”

The School Committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 29 in room A15 at the high school.