Listening to Lashon Hara in a Great Need

Hello, In the city where we live, there is only one small yeshiva. The head of the yeshiva is also the mayor and the president of all the institutions here, and we have had a relationship with him for many years. A few years ago, someone from the community, a talmid chacham, head of a kollel and posek, sent his son to a yeshiva in another city and also convinced other families to send there. Since then, there has been a conflict between these two rabbis because the mayor was very upset that families from the community are not sending to his yeshiva, and the reputation of his yeshiva has greatly diminished. We have a child in eighth grade with high-functioning autism who studies in a regular cheder. A few months ago, we learned that he was accepted to the local yeshiva, thank God. This was important to us because he cannot sleep in a dormitory due to autism. Yesterday, we received a message that the head of the yeshiva changed his mind and is not willing to accept him into the yeshiva because our new son-in-law studies in the kollel of the second rabbi, and he is upset about this. Of course, we are not connected to his decision on where to study, and he chose the kollel himself. The mayor said that if we support the second rabbi, we should go with him all the way and send our son to the yeshiva he recommends. As I wrote, we do not have such an option. We called the mayor to set up a meeting with him to try to convince him to accept him again, and on the phone, he said bad things about the second rabbi. We scheduled a meeting for Saturday night, but we are afraid he will speak lashon hara again at the meeting. Are we allowed to go? We feel we have no choice because our son must go to yeshiva next year, and we have no other options, but we do not want to hear lashon hara about a talmid chacham. We would appreciate knowing what is the right thing to do.

Hello 

It is permissible to go to the meeting if it will be beneficial and the child will be accepted into the yeshiva. 

However, you must first decide that you will not believe any derogatory words said about the other yeshiva and its head.