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Diminishes Guilford

Oh dear. Just when we thought it was safe to go back to school, the gang of malcontents is back with more attacks against Superintendent Paul Freeman and the Board of Education (BOE). Their charges are also an attack against all of us — the citizens of Guilford.

What started as a grudge has become a vendetta; and now we, as the town’s taxpayers, may have to pay for it. The Courier’s Sept. 1 issue (“Parents Threaten Lawsuit Over CRT Claims”) states that this minority faction may engage an attorney to represent their false claims that the high school curriculum teaches critical race theory. It doesn’t. However, if the Town and the BOE are forced to fight these charges, we taxpayers will pay for the Town to mount a defense.

In last November’s general election, Row B candidates were defeated at the ballot box and their claims against the Guilford School Administration rejected. Rather than rethink their position, they have instead doubled down on their allegations and descended to new levels of mendacity by charging the School Administration with “laziness,” attacking the Board of Education as “ignorant” and deriding Superintendent Freeman as “sinister” and “evil.”

There are unintended consequences for these attempts at intimidation that augur poorly for our highly- praised school system. Would you, as a teacher, want to work in a school where parents want you filmed because they don’t trust you? As a former teacher, I would be horrified.

Our schools have an extremely high rating statewide because we have excellent leadership; that is one reason people want to move here and live here. Which is why this challenge is thoughtless as well as ugly. It diminishes Guilford in the eyes of teachers, residents, potential residents, and students alike.

Joanna Baymiller

Guilford