Ludlow, MA School Board holds special meeting to attack MassResistance! Invites radical school staff and unhinged LGBT activists to “testify.”

Attempt to terrorize local parents whom we’re helping to fight back.

Board ignores normal rules of meeting procedure to accommodate this.

Part 12 in a series. (See entire series here.)

August 9, 2021

This woman announced she is a "member of the LGBT community"; and that "MassResistance is a hate group." She said that instead of complaining about pornographic books in school, parents should educate themselves by listening to LGBT podcasts.

In an unbelievable move, the Ludlow, MA School Board devoted its July 20, 2021 meeting to staging a public attack on MassResistance and the local parents we've helped. The Board moved the meeting venue to the high school auditorium and collaborated with the local teachers' union to bring in radical school staff and unhinged local LGBT activists to “testify.” It was a hideous presentation of vitriol with a cascade of unabashed lies.

They are incensed that MassResistance is successfully helping parents organize and stand up to the outrages in Ludlow’s Baird Middle School.

As we’ve reported, starting in 2019 school officials and staff in the middle school began pushing lurid pornographic and homosexual-themed books in the classrooms and library. Late last year, teachers and counselors began coaching children that they might be “transgender” and grooming them to take on opposite-sex identities – without the parents’ knowledge.

MassResistance helped parents organize and get the word out. After intense community pressure, the Superintendent and middle school librarian both resigned. The obvious purpose of this meeting was to terrorize the parents who have been complaining.

School Board Chairman Michael Kelliher's social media post about the meeting. ("LHS" is Ludlow High School.)

We have never seen a School Board anywhere do anything this unprofessional and unethical. The intent to demonize the parents was broadcast on social media, and it was clearly organized by the teachers' union, which is fiercely anti-parent.

The types of “testimony” that day included:

• Childish name-calling. The Left adopted the concept of a “hate group” to demonize their opponents. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a far-left extremist group which has been discredited across the political spectrum, labels every major conservative pro-family group in America (including MassResistance) as a “hate group,” using lies and hysteria. The SPLC has inspired violence, and has been forced to pay millions in defamation lawsuits. The Ludlow school staff knows this, but has no other way of defending what they do to children, so they parrot that group’s repulsive message.
• Outright lies about the law. Among other things, the staff claims that Massachusetts law requires that they do these things to children. There are no such laws. They also misrepresent the non-mandatory “guidance” documents from the Department of Education to attempt to justify their actions.
• “Parents are backwards and stupid.” They are not shy about saying that they’re the ones who know best how to raise other people’s children when it comes to sexuality, homosexuality, and transgenderism.
• Angry, illogical arguments. For example, they say that if parents oppose their children being indoctrinated into LGBT ideology, this means that the parents are (1) harming their own kids and (2) doing violence to the “LGBT community.”

Outside: School officials set up police intimidation

In order to send the absurd message that conservative parents who might come were likely to be violent, the School Board had several police officers (including State Police) as well as barricades at the outside doors to the school auditorium.

Attempting to frighten the community: Outside the doors to the school auditorium, the School Board stationed barricades, police officers, and even state police.

Instead, a small group of Catholics (Ludlow is largely Catholic) stood in a circle nearby in the parking lot praying the Rosary.

A few local Catholics prayed the Rosary in the parking lot near the entrance to the auditorium.

A group of the parents decided to show that they were not intimidated, and came to the meeting. They sat together in the back of the auditorium. Only one parent from the group addressed the Board – and he spoke first.

The parents came in and sat together in the back center rows of the auditorium.

The Chairman opens up the meeting to testimony

After dealing with some school department business, the Board Chairman, Michael Kelliher announced the start of the public comments.

Kelliher, third from left in plaid shirt, is a local dentist who is now in his glory as a pompous School Board chairman.

School committees and other government bodies across the country require people who speak to give their names and state where they live. But Kelliher said that’s not required here. Thus, several only gave their first names. He also said that speakers must address their comments to the chairman.  But he let the leftists ignore that rule. They were allowed to turn around and direct their rants at the parents in the back of the room.

In case any parents decided to complain about the recent firing of the parent-friendly teacher, Kelliher cited “Mass. General Law Ch. 39 Sec. 23b” which he said forbids any discussion of personnel matters during School Board meetings. But don’t try to look up that law. It was repealed in 2009! That doesn’t matter to Kelliher.

The speakers

Here are some of the speakers that evening and what they had to say:

Stephen Foote, father of two middle school children targeted by the staff for "transgender" grooming.

The first speaker – the only one from the Ludlow parents group – was Stephen Foote. Stephen is the father of the 11-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son were groomed by the school staff to be “transgender” – and the school kept this information from him and their mother. Stephen gave a short but powerful speech about his disgust for the Ludlow Schools and the school officials, and what they did to his children. At the end he announced to them “you will be sued.” (More on that coming up!)

This was “Sam Valentine” who told the School Board, “I’m a drag performer.” Sam then warned the Board that MassResistance is probably a Catholic group because of “the people outside saying the Rosary." He said that Catholics are “hypocritical,” adding “I’m sure you all had to walk by them.”

This woman said that “the hate group MassResistance” has brought “bigotry and homophobia” into the community. She said that the children’s books that parents say are pornographic are simply depicting normal LGBT relationships for children. She said that the parents who are complaining “don’t really care about their kids – they’re just trying to push their anti-LGBT agenda onto our community.”
She is “disgusted” that MassResistance is helping Stephen Foote because he and the mother are “hating on [their] children just for having the courage to be who they are.”

These two are the co-presidents of the Ludlow teachers’ union. They thanked all the teachers' union members “from all the surrounding communities” who came today. Then they turned to face the parents in the back of the room, and delivered a ridiculously dishonest rant:

They accused the parents of “attacking educators” and “supporting bigotry and intolerance.” They said, “We are witnessing destructive efforts to manufacture controversy where none exists. Educators are here to remind the community that no policies have been violated. No harm to students have occurred, and no concerns have gone unaddressed.”

Here’s how they described the complaints: “We have seen hateful and homophobic assaults bring harm to students and educators. Fear and ignorance have no place in our schools.”

This man made the bizarre statement that MassResistance is attempting to legalize “a process that attempts to turn your gay kids straight using electric shocks to the genitals, ice pick lobotomies, and chemical castration.” That is an incredible lie that he simply made up.

He then turned and addressed the parents. He said that parents being offended by children’s books of homosexual kissing made it so their kids “are afraid of you and what you can do to them.” He added that there is also nothing wrong with giving kids books about rape, because: “Your Bible also depicts rape.” He then said to the parents, “Your children are smarter than you. The world has moved on from your backwards beliefs as it did from the bigotry of yesterday. Grow up. Your kids already have.”

This woman identified herself as a lesbian teacher at Ludlow High School. She said that children have “a right” to homosexual library resources and that, “You have the right to be called by your name and pronouns that reflect your truth. The laws in Massachusetts guarantee this right and the School Committee cannot take that away.”

She turned and said to the parents, “To the group of people who are part of MassResistance: It is against the law for us to carry out most of your demands. We will not, and we cannot. So I beg of you to take your complaints and concerns to the State House. Coming to the School Committee will do nothing to accomplish anything here. We are doing our job.”

That is all a lie. There are no such laws in Massachusetts. Even the non-mandatory “guidance” is fairly vague on these issues.

This man got up and stated, “MassResistance is a terrorist group.“ He said the reason we’re a terrorist group is that when he emailed us we wouldn’t take the time to explain all of our positions. He then gave another ridiculous warning: that if parents are allowed to criticize the homosexuality and transgenderism in the middle school, that will soon lead to mistreating blacks and disabled children in the school.

A School Board member chimes in

After the LGBT speakers finished coming up, Board Member Chip Harrington decided to add some final words of his own.

Board member Chip Harrington, center, bashes MassResistance.

It’s hard to tell whether Harrington is incredibly uninformed or just stupid (though we lean toward the latter). He started off by saying that the “anti-LGBT” hysteria in Ludlow was started by the parents on social media. In fact, it was all done by the Left – accusing the parents of that.

Harrington made a convoluted argument about parental rights – that parents should be able to see the pornographic books in the middle school, but they need to adhere to the “process” for keeping them from their children – a process that guarantees that nothing will change.

He then said, “MassResistance is a horrible organization, and I want nothing to do with it.” His reason is that he had received a phone call from our coordinator Arthur Schaper, who lives in California. (Arthur wanted Harrington to meet with the parents.) Harrington loudly complained that MassResistance is obviously an out-of-state group - and said its leader has never even been to western Massachusetts. 

In fact, our website clearly says that MassResistance is based in Waltham, Mass., just down the road from Ludlow. And the group’s leader, Brian Camenker, has been to western Massachusetts (including Ludlow) many times. Everybody knows that. (And besides, the LGBT and Planned Parenthood groups that the school works with are based out of state!)

Final thoughts

When all was said and done, this School Board meeting had the opposite effect from what was intended. The parents are more energized than ever! This meeting opened their eyes even more.

First, it became very clear that the opponents are a small group compared to the overall Ludlow community, which is quite conservative.

Second, the opponents showed that they have no rational arguments and do not care at all about the actual welfare of the children. Instead, they revealed themselves to be angry, self-righteous (and somewhat dysfunctional) people devoted to a radical ideology – who hate those who disagree with them.

And third, the parents' opponents (including School Board members) are shamelessly willing to twist the truth and tell outright lies. They no longer have any credibility. The aura has been severely shattered.

Next: The lawsuits.