By Judith Dorato O’Gara

For Franklin resident and educator jamele adams, nothing happens by chance.

“We are the people meant to be alive right now to navigate these times,” says adams, who in January released the book How Kids Define Love, Inclusion and Trust: The Book of LIT, with Amy Adams, along with the couple’s children, providing illustrations.

The catalyst for the book was adams’ work and experiences as former Director of DEI, and later, Director of Love, Inclusion and Trust for Scituate Public Schools, in which he employed the framework, “Love, Inclusion and Trust (LIT)” he had created as Dean of Students at Brandeis University years before. Student responses he saved and curated are highlighted in the book.

However, not all of adams’ experiences in Scituate were positive. 

A few years ago, someone created adams’ mock tombstone at a local Scituate beach. The community rallied behind adams at the time, who, rather than responding with anger, took a different approach.

“I felt that whoever did that, somehow they didn’t feel the same love that we try to put into the world,” says adams, “so we needed to figure out how to reach those people somehow. Let’s put some more love out in the world. Let’s see how we can get that love to them and figure this all out.” He aimed at engaging all of the community.

“This work … when you’re genuine about it, we’re not just doing it for the people that feel like us that have a similar frame of thought. We do it for everybody,” he says, “That’s why conversation is so important.” 

Last October, out of the blue, with no explanation, Scituate Public Schools eliminated adams’ position, although the Scituate School Committee insisted they were not eliminating DEI entirely. Many residents turned out in support of adams at School Committee meetings, and students even staged a peaceful walkout. 

adams says his wife, Amy, encouraged him to take the resulting transitional time to finally work on assembling this book from feedback he’d gathered from students.

“I think that, you know, young kids always say some of the most brilliant things,” says adams. Children, he says, “look at the world in this way that, you know, it has to be this wonderful place. It has to be this place that works this way. This is what makes sense. And it’s like, ‘Wow. I recall a time when I thought about the world in that way,’” he says.

“We decided, let’s use this time to make it work, because we believe the universe works, even when we don’t understand it or how it’s working. Maybe this is opportunity to pull together and put some more energy out into the world,” says the educator, who was touched by the outpouring of love from the community that had stood up for him in Scituate.

“We believe that the book is an avenue upon which a conversation can be built in a way that’s inviting and folks don’t feel scared or intimidated,” says adams, adding, “You’re not hearing it from some political framework or whatever. These are the children saying, ‘This is how we define love, inclusion and trust.’”