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Attorney General Maura Healey addresses a crowd at the Barnstable Senior Center for a talk on economic justice.
HYANNIS – A local Plymouth teen took her complaints about bullying to the commonwealth’s top law enforcement officer last night.
Dylan Jane Worthen was just one of more than 75 people who turned out to the Barnstable Senior Center to hear Attorney General Maura Healey talk on the topic of economic justice.
Healey said her office is dedicated to bringing justice to the people of the commonwealth.
“I think it comes down to some core principles about the importance of recognizing the dignity and worth of all people and advocating for opportunities,” she said.
The Barnstable Democratic Town Committee sponsored the talk, which brought out a number of local politicians from throughout the Cape.
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John Reed, chairman of the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission, suggests that the attorney general hold regional meetings to let people know about the office’s services.
Healey touched on a wide range of issues that her office of 550 staffers are working on, from the opioid abuse crisis, which she is attacking from several fronts, to the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to affordable housing, equal wages, earned sick time and for-profit schools.
She said her office seeks to work on issues important to people at any given time.
“Why did we work on foreclosures years ago? Because that’s what was happening to people. Why is the opioid crisis at the top? Because that’s what’s happening with people. Why have I made student loans a priority?
Because that’s what’s happening with people,” she said.
Audience members asked Healey to step into a number areas of local concern like Eversource’s spraying of pesticides on utility easements to the exploitation of sex workers to soaring home insurance rates.
But it was Dylan’s description of the bullying she suffers at Plymouth South Regional High School that struck the loudest chord in the audience.
“There are a lot of Caucasian kids there and I’m a mixed girl, Spanish, black, Caucasian. They are bullying me about my race. . . It’s really hard and I went through a lot of trauma. It hurts,” she said.
Healey told the student that she had given an anti-bullying talk just that morning at a school in Dorchester.
“I was talking to them about bullying and why they need to shut it down, why it doesn’t work, why it hurts. It’s not just against the law but it’s unacceptable for the kind of world, for the kind of society we want to lead and live in,” she said.
The Attorney General said that bullying is pervasive in the culture, from the top Republican candidate for president on down. “It’s completely offensive and it’s just sad to me,” she said.
She advised Dylan to stay strong and talk to her parents, teachers and counselors about the problem.
And she said that she employs impressive teens like Dylan in her office for summer jobs and she encouraged Dylan to apply.
After the talk, Dylan was approached by other officials who encouraged her to remain true to herself and told her that there were people she could reach out to.
“I think it was really helpful to know people were listening to me,” Dylan said.
For her part, Healey said she was gratified at the number of people who turned out for the weeknight session.
“I think there were great suggestions including the suggestion about a regional advisory meeting, which I think directly lines up with where we want to be in terms of how do we improve communications so we really can be the people’s law firm and service people,” Healey said.
That suggestion had come from John Reed of West Yarmouth, chairman of the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission, who said not everyone has access to computers to look up services offered by the attorney general’s office.
By LAURA M. RECKFORD, CapeCod.com News Editor
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