To the Editor:

I attended the rally against book banning and the BOE meeting on Tuesday, May 16th. It was, in fact, a sad day for Newtown as expressed by the RTC, but not for the “reasons” they outlined. The fact that the “conversation about books” is continuing after the expert committee made its recommendation is ludicrous.

The fact that so many Newtown children and the very educators that the BOE hired feel unsafe and unheard by our BOE is truly sad. The fact that our former Coordinator of DEI, Wesley Johnson, took the time to come back to Newtown to condemn the Board for “the open & forthright resistance to policy, ideas content, and themes that run counter to what might be considered or perceived as pompous, platitudinal, or puritanical ideals” is sad.

The Republican members of the BOE are not offering solutions, they are trying to exact control [where it is not wanted or needed]. They are hypocrites who banned clapping when my then 10 year old son told them about being called a nigger at school. He and other marginalized Newtown students bravely spoke up to the silent stares of the BOE.

The following meeting, the same BOE members clapped themselves for the students who spoke against mask mandates. In fact, a BOE member even worried they might be “bullied” for their choices. If the Republican members of the BOE believe they know better than educators and doctors with advanced degrees and years of experience, why are these doctors and educators on payroll?

I admit to clapping and cheering for my now 12 year old son when he was the first to get up for public participation on May 16th. I felt emotional when he spoke of my father, a 35 year educator, who taught African American Literature and gave me banned books to read. Kenneth wasn’t kidding when he thanked the BOE for starting his summer reading list as we both just finished Flamer. Flamer is a book about self-acceptance and hope and we highly recommend it.

When Ms Zukowski admonished us for cheering but said we could clap (it can be hard to keep up with her rules) I refrained from cheering as speaker after speaker spoke against censorship. I did laugh out loud accidentally when a father said if his daughter is going to learn about performing oral sex, it should come from him — if only for the fact that he probably should have spent a little longer working on his prepared speech.

Also, those were the very words he professes to want to protect children from and yet he said them at a public meeting where many children were in attendance. Hypocrisy in action! The outcry for the treatment of our BOE members by the RTC speaks volumes as they have none of the same concern for BIPOC students who are subjected to worse on a daily basis.

Respectfully,

Christine E. Miller

Newtown