On Monday, Republican Board of Education member Robert Harrington said that Republican candidate Camilo Riano “crosses the line.” Harrington cited Riano’s comments about superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice, and 2 complaints Riano filed against the town of Westport.
Riano replies:
As one of the Republican candidates for the Board of Education, I was truly hoping for a campaign in which we had substantive discussions on topics which are important to the parents, the teachers and the children of Westport. Instead, we are already down the path of character assassination.
Camilo Riano
During the past few days, there has been an increase in social media posts that reiterate the innuendo against me that my Democrat rivals have been circulating in their campaign communications. The comments are also consistent with the various smears and character attacks that their supporters have been directing towards me in different media outlets.
The objections to my candidacy seem to revolve around two major points. First, my use of the phrase “child grooming.” Second, my legal efforts, as a concerned citizen, to correct violations of the Westport town charter.
For the benefit of voters, I will address both points head on.
First, in an open letter to Superintendent Scarice, and at Board of Education meetings, I have asked for an end to the “child grooming” that is taking place within our schools.
Pornographic images are widely recognized tools within the child grooming toolkit. According to retired FBI Agent Bob Hamer, “the most important step” in seducing a child through successful grooming techniques is the introduction of “sexual talk and pornography, explaining to the child that he was old enough to understand and mature enough to appreciate sexual topics.”
Along with many parents in our community, I considered the “banned books” display that was set up at the high school library extremely problematic. Some of the images in these books were so pornographic that Dan Woog himself took them down from his website, after briefly posting them. This material was not merely sitting on the shelves of our school libraries. The book display was intentionally designed to tempt our children to review the images by inviting students to “find out why” the books were “banned.”
Three books in the Staples High School Library were challenged by parent Tina McLaughlin. A special committee later voted unanimously that the books could remain in the library. Superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice affirmed the decision; McLaughlin later dropped her appeal of that decision.
I do not believe, and never stated, that anyone connected with our schools intended to abuse our children physically, but the unintended risks associated with sexually inappropriate material are potentially very serious. If rational people are having a genuine discussion as to whether or not material displayed in our school library legally qualifies as obscenity or child pornography, something is seriously wrong.
While some might be offended by my choice of words, attacking the words I used does not change the inappropriateness of what has been taking place in our schools. Citizens have a right to dislike this word or that, but I believe most parents, across party lines, are quite uncomfortable with many things happening in our school district that would have been unimaginable in years past. I believe parents are much more concerned about the recent escalation of sexual content and themes in so many facets of our schools and much less concerned about which terms are the most politically correct. As a candidate for BOE, I stand for reasonable and appropriate boundaries when it comes to sex and gender related matters.
In the first instance, my engagement on the subject of the composition of TEAM Westport, the town lawyer and the first selectwoman actually concurred with our analysis and responded to it by restructuring the committee to bring it in line with the charter. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to thank me for bringing this to the town’s attention, rather than using my involvement here as some kind of talking point against me? Do we not value compliance with the law in Westport?
In the second instance, I communicated my view, supported by legal analysis, that the Board of Ed lacks the legal standing to add student representatives who will function as de facto board members. All 3 Republican board members had objections to the installation of these student “representatives.” I stand with them in their positions.
I am putting myself out there as a candidate because I have strong objections to how the Democrats, under the so-called leadership of chairperson Lee Goldstein, are running the school system. I think it is time to renew the membership of the Board of Education and give parents the representation they deserve.
I continue to believe that how we approach the issues of gender and sexuality within our schools is very important. While activists may continue to insist on their various philosophical positions, these are our children and we need to stand up for them. It was only because of strong advocacy from parents that superintendent Scarice recently had to clarify that our teachers are prohibited from inquiring about student pronouns (indirectly asking children as young as sixth grade, on their very first day of school, if they are transgendered). In some cases, teachers were even asking the students if they wanted this information to be withheld from their parents! Mr. Scarice is correct in his determination that this practice is unacceptable, and I commend him for making that unambiguous.
We should not just blindly trust ideologically motivated activists who have been ignoring what the administration told them. Parents need to be involved. This is why we have a Board of Education. By and large, our teachers are excellent and I have been always on their side, but when something is going wrong in our district, it is the obligation of good parents to step in and make their voice heard.
Enough with the personal attacks. Let’s stop distracting voters with semantics and focus on substance. Let’s have a real dialogue. I welcome the opportunity to engage with my Democrat rivals on these crucial issues.
Let’s have a meaningful and civil exchange of ideas. Let the voters decide. This is how American democracy works.