Responding to reporting of remarks I made for the Visible Community at the Martel School meeting about redistricting (Feb. 6), our request was that schools receiving new students from downtown neighborhoods be prepared to protect those students from hurtful remarks about where their families live.

Our members’ children have felt unwelcome when moved to outlying schools. And remarks at some public meetings about the redistricting plan, about children from downtown and their families, have been extremely hurtful.

Those expressed prejudices could significantly affect the outcome of the Redistricting Committee’s recommended plan.

That is not who we are or should be as neighbors. All our community’s children are precious. That was the most important thing I said at the meeting, on behalf of the Visible Community.

Most new Mainer families and native Maine families living downtown share a common challenge of limited means. They share a home location. In our conversations with them, most share the belief that the most important factor in the quality of their children’s education is the skill and caring of their teachers.

They share concerns that, without deep attention to providing a genuinely welcoming culture in the receiving schools, the harm of unkindness could outweigh the benefit of more economic and ethnic diversity in their children’s schools.

We applaud the schools’ civil rights teams and anti-bullying efforts. Still, we urge consistent investment in creating and sustaining a safe, welcoming environment in every school for every Lewiston child.

Peg Hoffman, Auburn