Latest news with #Wegimont
Boston Globe
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
R.I. councilman charged with assaulting man during council meeting
The arrest comes after a Republican leader accused Wegimont of 'body-slamming' him at a South Kingstown Town Council meeting last week. Anthony D'Ellena, the chairman of the Narragansett Republican Party, claims Wegimont left in the middle of the June 9 meeting and 'charged' at him in the hallway, slamming into him and yelling at him. Advertisement D'Ellena had previously posted online about Wegimont's DUI arrests from 2022 and 2023, calling on him to resign as a councilman. Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up Video from the South Kingstown Town Council's YouTube page shows D'Ellena and two women leaving the room about three hours into the meeting, after the council finished discussing a school construction issue they were there to observe. The video shows Wegimont also get up from dais at the front of the room and walk out of the chamber. (Wegimont missed a vote about school construction.) In the hallway, D'Ellena claims Wegimont 'charged at me.' 'He physically pushed his body into mine,' D'Ellena told the Globe. 'He was screaming, 'hey, hey.'' 'I thought he was going to physically start punching me,' D'Ellena continued. He said he walked away, and Wegimont followed him into a stairwell. Advertisement At that point, D'Ellena said, he started to record Wegimont on his phone. In the video provided to news outlets, D'Ellena asks Wegimont, 'Councilman, did you just follow me out of a meeting?' 'I didn't appreciate you talking about me online,' Wegimont responded. 'I wanted to talk to you and say 'hey, I didn't appreciate what you put about me online.' 'I don't appreciate you drunk driving,' D'Ellena replied. 'That's fair,' Wegimont said. D'Ellena said the alleged assault happened before he started recording, and that Wegimont 'calmed down' once he began taking video of him. He did not capture the alleged assault, which he said happened earlier in the confrontation. 'I don't think anyone leaves a Town Council meeting expecting to be assaulted by a sitting town council member,' D'Ellena said. 'Maybe I should start wearing body cam if I ever go back.' In a statement to police and provided to the Globe, he said he felt Wegimont was attempting to 'intimidate and silence me for exercising my First Amendment rights as a political figure.' Two South Kingstown GOP officials who were with him gave witness statements to police, D'Ellena said. Wegimont, a Democrat, was first elected to the Town Council last fall. It's not clear why police did not immediately release the arrest report, which is considered a public record under state law. 'This is an ongoing investigation and we will provide updates as warranted,' Moynihan said in a press release. Earlier Tuesday, before announcing the charge against Wegimont, Moynihan had declined to release the initial incident report because of the ongoing investigation. Advertisement Wegimont was arraigned on the charge at the police department Tuesday and is due back in court in July, Moynihan said. The Rhode Island Republican Party called on Wegimont to resign over the weekend, prior to the criminal charge being filed. 'This wasn't just a lapse in judgment — it was a violent, calculated act of political retaliation, carried out in public and witnessed by multiple people,' Joe Powers, the state GOP chairman, said in a press release Saturday. 'Let's call this what it is: an abuse of power and a disqualifying act for anyone holding public office.' Suzanne Ouellette, the chief of communications for the Providence Public School District, said the school department was aware of the charge and placed Wegimont on leave. 'Since this is a personnel matter, we will not be providing further comment at this time,' Ouellette said. South Kingstown Town Council President Rory McEntee could not immediately be reached for comment. Steph Machado can be reached at
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DOJ investigating alleged discrimination in PPSD's student loan repayment program
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Rhode Island's largest public school system for allegedly discriminating against teachers who identify as white. Providence Public School District spokesperson Jay Wegimont told 12 News that the DOJ notified the district and the R.I. Department of Education about the investigation, which was first reported by Breitbart News on Friday. The state has controlled the city schools since 2019. Wegimont said the DOJ was looking into a student loan repayment program first implemented in 2021. The Educator of Color Loan Forgiveness Program was funded with a $3.1 million grant from the Rhode Island Foundation as an incentive to bring more teachers identifying as Black, Asian, Indigenous, Latino, or multiracial to the district. The district said at the time the goal was to hire more than 125 minority teachers over a five-year period. New or recently hired eligible teachers would be able to use the funding for college loan repayments of up to $25,000 over their first three years of employment. Decisions on awards for the fourth group of educators since the program launched were scheduled to be made last month. Wegimont said the case examines if the school district is 'engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964,' and if the district 'may be engaged in certain employment practices' related to the loan repayment program. 'PPSD is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, national origin or other protected status,' Wegimont said. 'We remain committed in our efforts to recruit and retain a teaching population that reflects the diverse community we serve.' RELATED: RIDE, AG tell schools to not remove DEI policies as Trump admin threatens cuts The investigation comes in the wake of President Donald Trump's crackdown on school districts over their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. The Trump administration has argued DEI doesn't belong in schools and is discriminatory against white and Asian students. Superintendent Javier Montañez informed the Providence School Board about the probe in a letter on Sunday night. He said legal counsel for PPSD and RIDE will cooperate with the DOJ. Target 12 obtained a copy of the letter, which said at the time the program was implemented, students of color represented approximately 80% of enrollment in the district, compared to about 20% of educators identified as educators of color. 'Increasing the diversity of our teaching force is not only aligned with the core values of the district, but also has a direct, positive impact on student outcomes as demonstrated by years of educational research,' Montañez said. At the time the grant was announced, Rhode Island Foundation President and CEO Neil Steinberg said that 'benefits of a diverse faculty are well documented.' (Steinberg has since retired and been replaced by David Cicilline, the former congressman.) 'Research confirms that when taught by a teacher of color, students of color experience higher reading and math test scores, higher graduation rates, decreased dropout and discipline rates and increased enrollment in advanced courses,' Steinberg said in 2021. Target 12 reached out to the Rhode Island Foundation for comment on Monday, but did not immediately hear back. This isn't the first time the student loan repayment program has made headlines. In November 2022, the Barrington-based Legal Insurrection Foundation filed an administrative complaint with the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, charging the district with civil rights violations related to the program. 'Because a teacher's qualification for the loan repayment program turns on race, skin color, and ancestry, the program is discriminatory on its face and in practice and violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,' the complaint said. The administrative complaint was referred to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in February 2023. The foundation's founder, William Jacobson, wrote Friday that the complaint had been with the commission 'without any enforcement action for two years, despite repeated follow up by LIF.' Alexandra Leslie (aleslie@ is a Target 12 investigative reporter covering Providence and more for 12 News. Connect with her on Twitter and on Facebook. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
