An Easthampton, Massachusetts school committee is finding just how difficult it is to find good woke help these days.
The group has been searching for a new superintendent, but it has been forced to ditch its top two choices for the job after both committed unforgivable acts of bigoted, hate-fueled intolerance.
Take Vito Perrone.
(Video: YouTube)
The committee had offered him the job, but when Perrone was negotiating his pay, he used the term “ladies” in an email, the Daily Mail reports.
Clearly, he wasn’t suited for the gig after all.
So, the committee reportedly moved on to its second choice, Erica Faginiski-Stark.
(Video: YouTube)
They were about to select her, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reports, but a member of the high school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance Club shot an email to the mayor of Easthampton, Nicole LaChapelle, to voice “extreme concerns” about the would-be superintendent.
The student, whose name was redacted by city officials due to age and safety concerns, had dug up a Facebook account bearing Faginski-Stark’s name and found “conservative transphobic rhetoric a multitude of times.”
It seems Faginski-Stark doesn’t believe biological men should be able to destroy women’s sports.
Shocking, we know, but posts to the Facebook page allegedly belonging to the candidate, a page that now appears to have been deleted, called “For EVERY female athlete out there” to “speak up.”
The Jan. 23, 2021 post included a video link to a PragerU video that discussed the “end of women’s sports” if biological men are allowed to compete against actual females and coincided with President Joe Biden’s Jan. 20, 2021, executive order affirming anti-discrimination policies against the LGBTQ community.
“As a former Div. 1 scholarship athlete and academic & athletic ALL American,” Faginski-Stark reportedly wrote, “our young women just got stripped of their equal rights and equal opportunity yesterday.”
Two months later, she called on her followers to sign a petition that would “defend Title IX.”
“Ladies, the glass ceiling is more real now than it’s been in generations,” the post states, according to the Gazette. “Our choice to use our voice or to remain silent will determine not only the future of women’s athletics but equality for women everywhere. It’s time to speak up.”
“With the recent anti trans picketing, many youth in the school are concerned and angry,” the high school student wrote to the mayor.
LaChapelle replied, telling the student that she would speak to Faginski-Stark and email them back.
And that wasn’t the only student who complained.
In a separate correspondence released on Tuesday by the city, LaChapelle told another student that she was “actively” following up on the concerns the first individual, who was speaking on behalf of Gender and Sexuality Club members, raised.
“Thank you for speaking out — no person should have to hold such concerns,” LaChapelle wrote.
The mayor and School Committee Chairperson Cynthia Kwiecinski began investigating the allegations, and, three days later, Faginski-Stark withdrew her application from consideration, just as contract negotiations were set to begin.
According to committee member Laurie Garcia, she only became aware of the students’ concerns after she read about the letter in the Gazette.
“This most recent turn of events is yet another reason for the public to question a lack of communication and process with the current School Committee,” Garcia said. “I am very proud of our Easthampton students for standing up against transphobia. However, any letter of this magnitude should have warranted an emergency executive session to discuss it with the full committee before statements were issued to the press.”
Kwiecinski defended her decision not to share the letter with the full committee.
“Dr. Faginski Stark dropped out immediately, when she heard about the letter, so negotiations never began,” she said. “If she had not withdrawn, I would have immediately shared the letter with the Committee so that they had time to review it before our executive session.”
The search for a suitable superintendent continues…
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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