LOWELL — The hate-filled posts and threats started within hours of a video going viral recently on social media platforms, which showed a 14-year-old Cambodian-American girl being removed from a public forum by a Lowell Police officer at the end of a discussion about the future of data centers in the city.
Supporters saw the rising high school freshman as a free-speech advocate speaking boldly about the expansion of the power-hungry data center facilities, one of which is located in Lowell.
Detractors saw the petite teenager as a threat to social order. Laced throughout many of those online comments was language targeting her ethnic background.
“The public comments were talking about my race,” “EY” said during a conversation in a friend’s backyard last month. “If I were a white person, they wouldn’t be saying those things.”
EY is a pseudonym we are using to protect her and her family.
Family part of the Khmer Rouge diaspora
Her parents, who are part of the Cambodian diaspora from the Khmer Rouge regime, sat quietly in the background as EY described what led up to her attending the public forum on her own, what inspired her to speak out as the meeting concluded and how she is still processing her experience.
“I’m still jumpy about what happened,” she said in a shaky voice. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment, but I know that shouldn’t stop me from standing up.”
Public forum organized by the city
The June 29 forum had been organized by the city’s Department of Planning and Development to gather information on zoning changes with regard to data centers.
Although not mentioned by name during DPD’s presentation, the Markley Group LLC operates a 352,000-square-foot data center facility in Lowell’s Sacred Heart neighborhood. Both the company and its proxies have bought additional properties that may expand the company’s footprint in the city.
The company’s main campus on Markley Way is in an area zoned as light industrial, but its borders bump up against backyards, swimming pools and people’s bedroom windows. Residents in the economic justice neighborhood have consistently testified to noise and air quality concerns, ongoing and disruptive construction projects and violations of approved permitting.
But little in the city’s existing zoning code specifically addresses the development of these mammoth and growing facilities.
At least 200 people attended the forum, including employees of Markley Lowell, overwhelming the organizer’s ability to direct the conversation in the limited one-hour time frame. The planned question-and-answer session on zoning instead became a platform for speakers to state either their opposition to or support for data centers.
Growing political and social awareness
EY, who had graduated from Stoklosa Middle School just a few weeks before, saw a flyer for the data center forum a day before it was scheduled. She described herself as someone who liked being politically aware, but was surprised to learn the high-tech infrastructure existed in her city.
“I surround myself with people who are into political stuff — discrimination and what’s happening to our environment,” she said. “I go to a lot of public meetings, as well as protests with my friends, usually.”
But that night, she couldn’t find anyone to go to the forum with her.
“I definitely tried to get people to go with me, but everyone was either too busy or found the topic boring,” EY said.
So, she asked her dad for a ride.
“She told me there’s a meeting about data centers — ‘Can I go?’” her father said. “I said, ‘Why you want to go there?’ She said, ‘I just want to hear what they talk about the data centers.’”
He took her and left to run errands.
“I’ve done that before,” he said. “I didn’t expect the whole thing with the police.”
Police move in
In a video provided to The Sun by Stephen Malagodi of 350 Mass of Greater Lowell, EY is seen repeatedly raising her hand during the question-and-answer session, and when the moderators got set to end the forum.
“I thought I was going to be the last person to speak,” EY said. “I was thinking about what to say. Originally, I was going to ask a question about the education benefit to the community with data centers.”
But when the moderator turned away from her and announced the meeting was over, she felt she had to do something.
“Everyone. Everyone,” EY said without the benefit of a microphone in June. “I understand that you said that was the last question, but I urge you to please listen to me. You’re free to leave while I speak, but I am 14 years old. I just graduated from Stoklosa Middle School. I am the future …”
At that point, her comments were drowned out by the crowd’s astonished reaction as a police officer took her arm and escorted her down the Butler Middle School auditorium stairs.
In response to The Sun’s records request, the Lowell Police Department released body camera footage, as well as the incident report documenting her removal from the public forum.
At the exit to the auditorium, with the police officer right behind her, EY said she panicked and stopped.
“I’ve heard the stories of what they do to people like me,” she said. She took a deep breath before continuing. “I was scared. I was scared of getting in trouble with the police. I didn’t know what was going to come next. I acted on impulse and threw my hands up.”
Two police officers directed her to a lobby following her removal and questioned her.
“I did not feel free to go,” she said. “I was definitely afraid. I thought I was in deep trouble.”
She started crying.
“I didn’t know if I was going to get my family in trouble,” EY said, between ragged breaths. “That was not what I wanted to do. I was so afraid that I had put them in danger.”
Proud to have a voice in the city’s future
Her older sister, who asked not to be named, supports EY. She sat on a picnic table with her younger sister and a childhood friend.
“I think the message she was sending out was important,” the sister said. “I was happy with the ‘I’m the future’ line — it really makes it clear how it’s going to affect us. Wish I had been there, but it makes me want to research [data centers] more.”
The friend, who also asked not to be named, said she was shocked when she saw the video and saw her friend speaking out.
“Kids can’t really have a say in meetings like this, so I was really proud that she had the courage to speak up,” she said.
Despite everything that happened — being pulled out of the forum, feeling like she was in danger or in trouble, worried about her family and enduring the hate targeting her background — EY said it felt good to have a voice. She said she’s still interested in the data center issue and hopes to spread awareness of it to her Lowell High School peers.
“I hope that the people that make these decisions now can just try to think about the future,” she said.
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