Teachers union seeks to distribute informational ‘Red Cards’ to Malden Public Schools students Red Cards provided by national ILRC detail guidelines on rights of immigrants and undocumented individuals By Steve Freker T he president of the Malden teachers union at Monday night’s Malden School Committee meeting formally requested the members to join with or allow the Malden Education Association (MEA) to distribute “Red Cards” to Malden Public Schools students. Red Cards are produced for use by the national nonprofit Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC). According to the ILRC, “Red Cards help people assert their rights and defend themselves in many situations, such as when ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents go to a home.” The text of what statements and information appears on the Red Cards appears below. If the Malden School Committee approves such an enterprise, it is believed Malden would be the only community in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to authorize such an action. There CARDS | SEE PAGE 11 FEAR FACTOR: The Malden Education Association (MEA) has requested the Malden School Committee to distribute national Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) Red Cards to Malden Public Schools students. (Courtesy/ILRC) Father John U. Paris, former longtime priest at two Malden parishes, Immaculate Conception and St. Peter’s in Edgeworth; at 97 Born in Rome, Rev. Paris was the oldest and longest ordained priest in Archdiocese of Boston By Steve Freker I Rev. John U. Paris f you grew up in Malden’s Edgeworth neighborhood in parts of four decades, you knew his name and what he meant to the community. For just over 30 years, Father John U. Paris served as a priest in two of Malden’s most prominent bastions of Catholic worship, located almost exactly one mile apart in the city’s West End. Father Paris, a native of Rome, Italy, passed away peacefully at the Regina Cleri residence for retired priests on January 15, 2025. He was 97 years old. His last stop as a parish priest was at the former St. Peter’s Church on Pearl Street, Malden, serving until just before it closed as a Catholic church in 2005. Father Paris continued to serve others, however, when he returned as a faculty member to St. Sebastian School in Needham. He was a familiar face to generations of students at St. Sebastian Country Day School, at both its previous and current campuses, having been on the faculty before his years in Malden. Father Paris held two major milestones. In addition to being the longest serving faculty member in the history of the St. Sebastian School, he was PRIEST | SEE PAGE 10
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