Parents, community members and school administrators from the Carmel Central School District participated in a town hall discussion about issues in the district.

"I want a safe environment for all of our students, not just for my child but for every child," says Abigail Lyons, a parent.

"It's very hard for any child to learn in an atmosphere of hate," says Linda Paris, a Carmel resident.

One of the topics discussed was a recent incident at George Fischer Middle School involving graffiti in a bathroom.

"It involved very alarming graffiti and so we made sure that we did our due diligence," says Erin Meehan-Fairben, superintendent of Carmel Central School District.

Parents say they're very concerned about this incident as well as discussions about changes to DEI policies and bullying.

"We were saying it should have never been brought up to that point that this policy was already fixed only less than two years ago," says Lyons.

District administrators promise they are committed to protecting students and will turn to the state for guidance too.

"We had been given guidance to try to bring our local policy more in line with New York State's language on the culturally reset framework so that is welcoming and affirming rather than diversity and equity," says Melissa Orser, Carmel Central School District board president. "There is nothing being taken away and we have other policies in place that also work in conjunction with our DEI policy."

The school district says they plan to host more town halls like this one in future.