Last month we told you about the drag queen who danced on a table at Sutton High School’s Connections Conference (ConCon), and we exposed the troubling history of the ConCon and the Sutton staff members responsible for the debacle. In the weeks following the release of the drag queen photos, the residents of Sutton have become increasingly vocal in their concerns about what took place, and the influence of woke activists in their district. Hoping to stem the tide of community discontent, two Sutton school committee members held a 2-hour public forum on April 22nd. Many questions were raised, but none were answered, leaving Suttoners unsatisfied. Anticipation built for the next school committee meeting, scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, May 6th.
Concerned residents were rallying their troops, but so were the activists. LGBTQ+ organizations from outside Sutton like MassEquality and Pride Worcester used their social media accounts to gin up support from their allies. By 5:30 p.m. on the day of the meeting, a crowd was waiting to get in.
But before the meeting could start, it was abruptly rescheduled due to technical issues. Concerned Suttoners, and the flag-waving activists, would have to wait until Thursday, May 9th, to make their public comments.
We didn’t think it was fair that the good people of Sutton, who just want to protect their kids from sexualization and political bias in school, might be outnumbered by outside activists. So we spread the news of the May 9th meeting on our Facebook, Instagram, and even on the Howie Carr show, encouraging more like-minded commonsense people to come out and speak.
Two days later, at the rescheduled meeting, close to 200 were in attendance, but no pride flags were visible. During more than two hours of public comment, over 40 people spoke — the speakers opposing ConCon outnumbered the pro-ConCon voices by 2-1! Many parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens made thoughtful and impassioned comments, some of which are highlighted in the 1-minute video below.
The small contingent of ConCon-tshirt wearing staff in attendance didn’t like that their conference was being criticized and behaved rudely toward many speakers. Their immaturity did not go unnoticed by other attendees, two of whom specifically called staff members out during their comments. It was also reported that one of these staff members tried multiple times to have speakers they disagreed with removed by the police officer in attendance, though their efforts were unsuccessful.
During public comments, Connections Advisor Colleen Motyl-Szary, who gleefully posed for Instagram photos with the drag queen, accused other speakers of “hate speech” but took no responsibility for exposing minors to an adult sexual performer.
Despite the unprofessional behavior of some staff members and a lackluster slideshow by Principal Ted McCarthy, who offered an unsatisfying apology for the “3 minutes (of the workshop) that went a little bit beyond what we expected” while still firmly supporting the content and direction of ConCon and appearing to play the victim, the overall message from the majority of speakers was loud and clear. That is, the Sutton community has a significant issue with the ConCon and they want the woke activism in their school district to stop.
After hearing the concerns raised by Suttoners, the school committee voted unanimously for an audit of the expenses and revenues connected to the 2024 ConCon. While financial questions are only one small portion of the problems with ConCon, this is a good first step toward in holding the SHS administration accountable for their actions, and it wouldn’t have happened without the good people of Sutton raising their voices.
Kudos to the Suttoners who are speaking up to protect their children and community. We will continue to follow your progress closely and will be praying for your efforts to protect the children in Sutton public schools from sexualization and indoctrination!
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For our families,
Jess Richardson