To the editor:
As Lee Goldstein and Neil Phillips seek re-election to the Westport Board of Education, I would be remiss if I did not voice unyielding support for each of them.
Over two years ago, as a working Mom, I knew serving on the board during the district’s busiest time (COVID, strategic planning, addressing facilities) would have significant impacts on my family.
Ultimately, all my fears were allayed as I grew to know Lee Goldstein’s firm but fair style, and intellect. It gave me confidence that we could continue the district’s growth in excellence and also navigate the controversial topics which seemed to be surfacing. Shortly after, Neil’s steadfast calm, thoughtful deliberation, and balanced commentary quickly served as a great model for board membership.
I felt then, as I do now, that the work being done in our schools was really, really important — for all our kids. Because of their upstanding and valued work, I was inspired to run and serve.
Naturally, I could cite all their credentialed experience, skill sets and accomplishments (and there are many: they both had active roles in leading WPS through the CMS crises, COVID, and passing fiscally responsible budgets — all while maintaining our district’s top ranks in academics).
Yet, for me, as a board member, none of these is the primary reason to support them. As board members, I feel strongly that we serve as models for our town, but more importantly, for our children. Lee and Neil are the kind of people with whom I would leave my children, without any reservation.
Regrettably, I am not so certain I could say the same for their opponents. In fairness, that is based strictly on what I have observed of them publicly. So I encourage us all to do our due diligence and explore each candidate. What have they contributed publicly? Are these the models we want for our children?
After all, the next board will lead our schools through some big shifts: redistricting, a new Long Lots, and the thick of our Strategic Plan. These next steps require thoughtful, measured, and balanced leadership as opposed to that which is emotional, reactive, and uncollaborative.
I implore us all to review their records to see how Goldstein and Phillips have listened openly to competing perspectives, while maintaining the momentum needed to keep our schools moving forward. I assure you, even if you don’t agree with every one of their stances, you will certainly agree on their decorum and deep respect for the kids, the town, and the role of the board.
Mark your calendars to vote on Nov. 7!
Christina Torres, Ed.D.
Board of Education member
Westport
It would be fantastic to see a local election focused less on impugning the character of candidates, and focused more on substance and policy. While character matters, I have no reason to think that Camilo, Jamie, or for that matter either of the Democrat candidate are bad people who cannot be “trusted to leave children with” (do people often leave their kids with the BOE?) I have been reading information as it becomes available from all four candidates, and in fact there was recently posted a video for Jamie and Camilo that can be found here if folks want to do their own due diligence: https://fb.watch/nof-6l_P1N/?mibextid=cr9u03. These candidates have children (and grandchildren in one case), and strike me as trustworthy people.
I hope that we hear more from all the candidates on important and substantive issues: bussing, new construction, physical safety of children and faculty, academic excellence, “equity”, why enrollment goals were not net (are people leaving, and if so who and why?), etc. I will happily stipulate that both the Republican and the Democrat candidates, our neighbors, care about children and families, and do not bear malicious or reckless intent towards our community. I will support and vote for the candidate(s) who I believe are best suited to keeping our district safe and excellent, and who support and promote the things that have made it so in the first place.
Speaking of lack of decorum, we have a Board of Ed member who literally just stated publicly that two parents in our town, each of which has four children, cannot be trusted even to watch other people’s kids. It is one thing to have philosophical or political disagreements, but this is an outrageous personal smear directed against two loving parents living with their families in our community. I call upon Ms. Torres to retract those comments and for the Goldstein Phillips campaign and the DTC to intervene if she won’t. This is truly beyond the pale.
You can find out for yourself how great these two people in our community really are here.
https://fb.watch/nojEUtl_V6/?mibextid=v7YzmG
Christina, It’s disappointing that you would suggest that any of the candidates cannot be trusted with children. Your commentary is harsh and irresponsible for an elected official to make against two parents who live in our community. At least one of these candidates will sit with us on the Board of Education come November. What a negative way to begin.
This seems to be a bit of gaslighting here. It’s interesting that the start of the negativity is placed on me when at least one of these candidates has been consistently and publicly name-calling and threatening our board for years. All examples of which are available on BOE meeting video archives. And yet, this candidate was still nominated to run and apparently seen as someone who could have a collaborative and positive relationship with the board. Similarly, even after the candidate has directly accused the administration of grooming- it was believed that he could serve as a workable addition to the board. Does this history not pose a problem in that candidate joining the board and working with the administration? (I ask rhetorically)
Additionally, I made no mention of the candidate’s’ trustworthiness with all children- just my own. I maintain that I would never leave my children with any person who so easily tosses around such slanderous language like “groomers, un-American” directed at me, or our upstanding administration. This name-calling and aggression is more than harsh and negative- it’s damaging. Again, I encourage everyone to examine each candidates’ record critically and make a decision in accordance with their values.
Christina, You’re confusing criticism of the board and the administration by parents, which is legitimate and fair game, with ad hominem personal attacks and smears, like the one you just made. If anyone ever wrote a letter to the editor implying I could not be trusted in the presence of children, I would be irate. And what about Jamie, what did she do to deserve your innuendo? You could have just said nice things about Lee and Neil and moved on. As an elected official, no need to make personal attacks on Westport residents. Maybe leave that to the whisper campaign.
Ms. Torres, who was “name-calling and threatening” you and other BOE members?!
No one did.
You are the one gaslighting here by spreading lies and false accusations.
The reality is just the opposite of what you state in your opinion letter and your comment.
Mr. Riano and nearly all other speakers at BOE meetings including myself were verbally attacked and threatened by your radical constituents. I wrote to you several times and asked BOE not to give platform to your radical constituents who insult and threaten local residents at BOE meetings by stating that we are “good people to be attacked”. You haven’t even replied!
Same constituents of yours cannot even behave while others speak. They run around the room and talk behind our backs disturbing everyone.
And now you deliberately spread lies about a running BOE candidate.
When Mr. Riano asked superintendent to stop grooming our children, he obviously meant in a capacity as a supervisor of those employed by the district.
This is after the children at Westport elementary school (including Mr. Riano’s children!) were presented with improprieties such a performance by Pilobolus, a dance group known for their sexual moves on stage while wearing only tight underwear. And children at Staples had to stare at two displays with sexually indecent materials containing oral and anal sex, sexual relationship with adults, a manual to register on the app where adults search for sex partners, and so on.
Even if you think the above isn’t grooming, many of us beg to differ.
In fact, at an event which took place last year at Westport library a former FBI agent who spent more than 20 years of his life uncovering pedophiles rings and sending them to a jail played a video from a hidden camera. In this video a pedophile coaches other pedophiles how to groom children. This pedophile specifically started with saying that a targeted child should be presented with pornographic materials where he/she would certainly find it, like bathrooms, hallways, etc. Other pedophiles agreed with him.
Now, don’t you think that two porno displays at Staples would fall under this strategy? One was by the front entrance. Another by the entrance to the library. So, American Library Association which is responsible for said display really made sure that ALL thousands of Staples students had no choice but to see the improprieties. ALA even attached enticing signs such as “someone doesn’t want you to read these books, find out why”. They also lied by calling these books “banned” even though they aren’t.
It came as no surprise to me that ALA is run by a radical who describes herself as “Marxist lesbian”. This radical wants to destroy our society and our family structure.
You may be ok with her agenda but many of us are not.
We send our children to their schools to learn sciences not be coached to become easy targets for child-traffickers and pedophile rings or to mutilate their young and healthy bodies resulting in an irreparable harm.
Along with several other speechifying citizens, Camilo Riano has opined during the first 15 minutes of most Board of Education meetings over the last few years. It’s more than fair to say he has a record of statements that lend insight into how his mind works. He has said the award-winning teachers and administrators of the Westport school system are groomers. So the Republican Town Committee—the local organ that excretes so many of our problematic politicians—rewards his libel by picking him to run for a seat on the board. Of course. Until Staples stops teaching history beyond the Dark Ages, some people will never be happy.
Will “role models” for our community’s children vow to oppose any Long Lots school building plan that will call for the destruction of the Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve?
Dr Torres is right to raise serious concerns about the character of Camilo Riano. He has shown himself, on multiple public occasions, to be a vitriolic homophobe. I am surprised and disappointed at the voices I see here defending him. I truly want to believe that Westport is better than that. I applaud Dr Torres for being brave enough to bring her honest and quite justified concerns to the public’s attention.
It is absolutely appalling that Sarah Alloy who is married to Jonathan Alloy, chose to defame running BOE candidate, Camilo Riano, by painting him as “vitriolic homophobe”. This is an outrageous lie.
Perhaps it is unbeknown to Mrs. Alloy that parents protecting their children from pornography and normalization of pedophilia are just that – parents defending their children regardless of their sexual orientation and preferences.
Needless to mention that it is Mr. Alloy who constantly attacks local parents and specifically those who speak before BOE with outrageous insults such as calling Jewish and Slavic people as “fascists” only because we protect our children from improprieties. Not only that, I would like to ask Sarah Allow what her husband meant when he stated that the very people he insulted are “good people to be attacked” and what attacks precisely he is contemplating.
While I normally try to keep out of the mudslinging, the comment above by Ms. Alloy requires a response.
At no point have I ever made a homophobic comment, “vitriolic” or otherwise. I know this because I have no objection whatsoever to the gay community. Actually, I already had plans to attend the rainbow crosswalk dedication ceremony on October 11th, and I very much want the support from members of that community in our campaign for the Board of Education.
I believe consenting adults should be free to love whomever they choose to love, marry, and create new families. That is part of what it means to be an American living in a free country, where we are not labeled and discriminated against on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation.
My concerns around the inappropriate sexual content, to which children in Westport schools have been exposed, have absolutely nothing to do with sexual orientation. They have everything do with my belief schools should be a “safe space” where children are not exposed to pornography and other dangerous material.
Going into this campaign, I anticipated some nasty back and forth and character assassination. As a husband and father living in this community, I considered that, but I also considered my duty to stand up for what I believe in and what I know is right. At the end of the day, I am doing this because I believe a change in leadership at the Board of Education is absolutely necessary for the benefit of my own kids and all of Westport’s kids.
I respectfully ask the Goldstein/Phillips campaign to ask their supporters to stop lying about me and spreading these horrible smears (and I have been made aware of others). Make this a campaign about issues and policy differences.
As for Ms. Torres, and any other Democrat members of the Board, I would always be available to babysit their kids if that gives them some extra free time to learn more about our positions before coming out writing shallow comments about Jamie and me.
For the voters, if you really want to know who Jamie and I are, just follow our Facebook page… https://www.facebook.com/fitzgeraldandrianoforboe
Thank you, Dr. Torres, for bravely raising concerns regarding Camilo Riano as a Republican candidate for the Westport BOE. I have listened to Mr. Riano’s comments at BOE meetings. He has attacked board members and school administrators, and accused our superintendent of “grooming” children. He has stated that he does not agree with the direction our schools are taking, although our schools rank top in the US. As a Westport resident and parent of elementary school students, I am concerned too. Thank you, Dr. Torres, for speaking publicly for families who do not feel comfortable or safe doing so themselves.
Yet another liar. Camilo Riano did not attack anyone let along BOE members and school administrators.
Mr. Riano did ask superintendent to stop grooming our children obviously meaning as a supervisor of those employed by the district.
This after a sexualized dance was performed before his children in their elementary school. And after two book displays containing pornographic materials took place at Staples:
Perhaps Ms. Tang mistaken Mr. Riano with Mr. Alloy who did attack two Jewish BOE members for their disagreement over definition of “equitable outcomes”, as well as parents with the same concerns , called us “fascists” and stated that we are “good people to be attacked”.
I suggest Ms. Tang to check BOE records before making false accusations:.
This is utterly preposterous. Ms. Medina, showing herself to be the most vitriolic of all, is also showing us what little grasp on reality she has. This is very reminiscent of other “stable genius” I would suspect she admires.
It is disgusting that Mrs. Alloy not only lies about a running BOE candidate but she now chose to attack disagreeing parent personally.
She should have been apologizing for her husband’s actions after he insulted Jewish and Slavic critics of “equitable outcomes” and pornographic materials at schools and called us as “fascists” or “Nazi”.
Instead, she chose to double down on insults in her comment here.
I am still curious to know what her husband meant when he stated that the critics of “equitable outcomes” and pornography at schools are “good people to be attacked”.
Should I worry, Mrs. Alloy?
What kind of attacks is your husband contemplating?!
Also, I would ask Mrs. Alloy to share instances of “vitriolic homophobic” comments or actions which she claims Mr. Riano is guilty of.
I know she wouldn’t because they are none.
And this is precisely why parents like myself don’t want radical left to force-feed our children’s minds. We don’t want your lies, your personal attacks, your insults, your threats, and your improprieties to be imposed on our children.
“”Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you…woo woo woo….”
Jimmy Izzo – Mommy and Daddy are fighting again…Isn’t it time for you to step in again and ask “why can’t we all just get along?”
LOL